With little more than two months before he defends his Crucible crown, Zhao Xintong produced the perfect reminder of his wonderful talent as he made five century breaks in a 10-6 victory over Zhang Anda in the final of the World Grand Prix.
It’s a first ranking title of the season for Zhao and a huge boost in confidence for the 28-year-old Chinese ace with his return to Sheffield on the horizon. It’s his fourth ranking title, bringing him level with Barry Hawkins, Luca Brecel and Ryan Day on the all-time list, and he has now won all four of his ranking finals having landed the 2021 UK Championship, 2022 German Masters and 2025 World Championship. He receives the World Grand Prix trophy for the first time and a cheque for £180,000, climbing one place to seventh in the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings.
Though he captured the invitational Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in November, it has been a patchy season in ranking events for Zhao before this week as he had failed to reach a final and stood outside the top 16 of the Sportsbet.io One-Year list. However as the superb Kai Tak Arena in Hong Kong he has more than made amends and now climbs to sixth on that list, cementing a place in the Sportsbet.io Players Championship in Telford this month and almost certainly the Sportsbet.io Tour Championship in Manchester.
On a week when history was made by the performances of Chinese players, with a record nine reaching the last 16, six making the quarter-finals and then a unique all-Chinese semi-final line-up, Zhao again proved himself the best of the generation which is flying in the slipstream of Ding Junhui’s earlier success.
Zhang, age 34, matched his opponent in the first session which finished 4-4, but could do little in the concluding stages as Zhao pulled away. Banking £80,000, Zhang moves up three places to 20th on the official list and has also secured a spot in Telford having jumped to 15th on the one-year list. He misses out on a second ranking title and first since the 2023 International Championship, and has now lost three of his four finals.
Breaks of 85 and 75 gave Zhao the first two frames of the evening session and a 6-4 lead. Zhang pulled one back with a run of 53 before Zhao’s 111 made it 7-5 at the interval. Frame 13 went to Zhang with a break of 73, but he scored just 25 points in the remainder of the match as Zhao rattled through the last three frames with 134, 65 and 131. Over his five matches the Cyclone swept in a total of nine centuries and 17 more breaks over 50.
“We both played very well today, our scoring was at a high level throughout the match,” said Zhao, who grew up in Shenzhen close to Hong Kong. “Perhaps later on I managed to take a few more chances. My mindset settled down nicely and my rhythm improved, which allowed me to play better and better. I was waiting for that one chance in every frame, then my aim was to push on and put pressure on him by getting well ahead. In the second half of the match, I was able to do that consistently, which made me very happy with my performance.
“There’s no real secret to winning finals. I think it’s just about being patient with yourself and making the most of every single opportunity. In the first two rounds of the tournament, I was actually very close to being knocked out, especially being 4-1 down against Mark Selby. Fortunately, I managed to fight my way back and give myself another chance to go deep in the event and compete for the title.
“I don’t feel that I’ve completely lifted the pressure of playing as World Champion yet. Mentally I still feel there is room to learn from the very top players. This season so far, although I’ve had some good results, I feel that my overall consistency hasn’t been as strong as the very best. That’s an area I know I still need to improve.
“I really want to thank all the fans here for their support. They gave me a huge amount of motivation. Playing in Hong Kong is very special for me, and being able to win the title here makes it even more meaningful. I’m truly very grateful to everyone in the arena for their support.”
This was a match of the highest quality. Other than the opening one, every frame featured a break over 50. As mentioned by WST, Zhao made five centuries en route to victory, including a 145 in frame 7.
I hope that nobody will begrudge Zhao his triumph. Yes, he made mistakes, but he has served his ban and has obviously worked very hard to redeem himself since his return to competition.
The arena didn’t look full but then it’s a really huge arena. Also, I wonder about the tickets pricing policy. The average Chinese fan’s earnings are far lower than the average European fan’s earnings. I remember chatting about that in Shanghai with one fan who said that he was better off than the vast majority of his compatriots and still, buying decent seats for himself and his wife had cost him half of his monthly salary. Of course, that was several years back but I’m not sure the situation is much different today. Maybe Lewis can tell us more?
3 thoughts on “Zhao Xintong is the 2026 World Grand Prix Champion”
I’ve heard conflicting messages about the actual attendance numbers. When I was there, the biggest crowd was for Wednesday evening, where Zhao Xintong beat John Higgins. After that match finished, literally hundreds of fans raced over in front of me to watch Table 2, where Yuan Sijun was winning against Judd Trump. There were at least 1000 that night. The best seats were probably Tables 3 & 4 in the middle, which allowed a fairly distant view of all four tables, but both big screens for the main tables. These seats cost around £35 for the session. The more expensive seats were £45, up to £200 for VIP seats, at the head of the table. It’s not surprising that there didn’t appear to be a good crowd from the TV view – most people sat further back. The whole arena holds up to 10000, which is ridiculously large. Even with growth and possibly a different pricing policy, it’s always likely to feel big and empty.
At the end of today’s match, both Zhao Xintong and Zhang Anda gave interviews in Cantonese, the local dialect. Zhao’s mother is Cantonese and Zhang comes from Shaoguan, which is in southern Guangdong. It was extremely fortunate for the organisers that the final comprised the only two Cantonese speakers in the draw! I’m sure that the outcome of the event will be a big boost to snooker in Hong Kong, which has had threats of funding cuts.
The only sad thing is that Zhang Anda’s 6-year old son, watching his father play for the first time, didn’t get to see him win. The boy was born at the start of the covid pandemic (obviously a very troubling time when hospitals, etc. were overrun), and was the main reason why Zhang spent 2 years off the tour.
But Zhao’s performance was sublime, and Ronnie’s label of ‘the Roger Federer of snooker’ seemed very apt.
That Hong Kong Masters was held in the Hong Kong Coliseum, a huge outdoor stadium, in October 2022. It was the first public event in Hong Kong to be sanctioned following the covid pandemic, so it was a massive occasion for people to come together after 18 months of quite severe lockdown restrictions. The ticket prices were deliberately affordable. But yes, it does show that perhaps snooker can do more to promote its events: the interest is there.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
I’ve heard conflicting messages about the actual attendance numbers. When I was there, the biggest crowd was for Wednesday evening, where Zhao Xintong beat John Higgins. After that match finished, literally hundreds of fans raced over in front of me to watch Table 2, where Yuan Sijun was winning against Judd Trump. There were at least 1000 that night. The best seats were probably Tables 3 & 4 in the middle, which allowed a fairly distant view of all four tables, but both big screens for the main tables. These seats cost around £35 for the session. The more expensive seats were £45, up to £200 for VIP seats, at the head of the table. It’s not surprising that there didn’t appear to be a good crowd from the TV view – most people sat further back. The whole arena holds up to 10000, which is ridiculously large. Even with growth and possibly a different pricing policy, it’s always likely to feel big and empty.
At the end of today’s match, both Zhao Xintong and Zhang Anda gave interviews in Cantonese, the local dialect. Zhao’s mother is Cantonese and Zhang comes from Shaoguan, which is in southern Guangdong. It was extremely fortunate for the organisers that the final comprised the only two Cantonese speakers in the draw! I’m sure that the outcome of the event will be a big boost to snooker in Hong Kong, which has had threats of funding cuts.
The only sad thing is that Zhang Anda’s 6-year old son, watching his father play for the first time, didn’t get to see him win. The boy was born at the start of the covid pandemic (obviously a very troubling time when hospitals, etc. were overrun), and was the main reason why Zhang spent 2 years off the tour.
But Zhao’s performance was sublime, and Ronnie’s label of ‘the Roger Federer of snooker’ seemed very apt.
But wasn’t there this Hong Kong Masters a few years back boasting of 10000 spectators Ronnie et al were waxing lyrical about? What happened to them?
That Hong Kong Masters was held in the Hong Kong Coliseum, a huge outdoor stadium, in October 2022. It was the first public event in Hong Kong to be sanctioned following the covid pandemic, so it was a massive occasion for people to come together after 18 months of quite severe lockdown restrictions. The ticket prices were deliberately affordable. But yes, it does show that perhaps snooker can do more to promote its events: the interest is there.