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Zhao Xintong is preparing for the biggest occasion of his life so far, his first World Snooker Championship final, and it has been quite a journey to get there.
The 28-year-old will take on Mark Williams in the Crucible showpiece over four sessions on Sunday and Monday, bidding to become the first player from China to win the greatest prize in snooker.
After thrashing Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-7 in the semi-finals many fancy his chances of doing just that, especially as his victory with a session to spare earned himself a day off before the final.
The rest will come in handy after the Cyclone needed to win eight matches to reach the final, compared to Williams’ four.
It may be clear that Zhao is one of the best players on the planet, but he began his World Championship campaign at the first round of qualifying as he is technically an amateur player.
Banned from the sport for 20 months for his involvement in a match-fixing scandal, he returned in September, looking to regain the kind of form which saw him win the UK Championship and German Masters in the past.
He has done just that, and very quickly, as his remarkable and controversial snooker journey continues.
Early promise
Born in Xi’an, but growing up in Shenzhen, Zhao showed immense promise very early, beating established players in the wildcard rounds of Chinese events.
He downed Ken Doherty as a 15-year-old and Steve Davis as a 16-year-old, with the Nugget especially impressed.
In his autobiography ‘Interesting’ Davis wrote of Zhao: ‘This boy was astonishingly good and better than anybody I have ever seen at that age – and that includes Ronnie O’Sullivan! He beat me 6-1 and outplayed me.
‘I didn’t see anybody jumping up and down in the air when he beat me. It didn’t seem to come as a surprise to anybody. He certainly wasn’t fazed about playing me. If his father knew who I was beforehand and told him about me I am sure he would have just shrugged his shoulders and said: “So what? He can’t play any shot better than I can!” He would have been right, too.’
As his reputation grew, Zhao told Inside Snooker: ”Of course it is nice if professional players don’t want to face me and I have that reputation.’
After some near misses he managed to turn professional at 19 years old in 2016 and moved to the UK.
HIs progress was not actually that stellar at that point and dropped off tour in 2018, but immediately regained his place through Q School.
The 2018/19 season saw an improvement in results, with his first ranking semi-final at the China Championship and a Crucible debut, where he was beaten by Mark Selby.
Huge breakthrough
Results were coming steadily but unspectacularly from 2018, with Zhao’s talent obvious, but his ringcraft not matching it.
Ronnie O’Sullivan said of him in 2020, while discussing Chinese talent: ‘I rate that Xintong better than all of them. He’s unbelievably talented but he just don’t know the game.’
Everything finally clicked for Zhao in 2021 in York when he won the UK Championship, pretty much out of nowhere as that China Championship in 2018 was still his only semi-final run beforehand.
He beat the likes of John Higgins, Jack Lisowski, Barry Hawkins and then Luca Brecel in the final to lift the trophy at 24 years old.
‘I think this could be my new start, I can have more confidence to win more tournaments,’ he said. ‘I trust I can do it because it was my first time in the final and I won the trophy.
‘I’m going to go home, get a good sleep, and maybe tomorrow do karaoke…I will sing We Are The Champions! I will try next year to be world champion.’
He got his hands on a trophy again the following month at the German Masters, with wins over the likes of Mark Williams and Judd Trump before whitewashing his friend Yan Bingtao 9-0 in the final.
Zhao picked up his first win at the Crucible, beating Jamie Clarke in round one but was downed by Stephen Maguire, ending the season firmly within the world’s top 10.
Banned from the sport
In late 2022 there began a steady drip of suspensions from the sport as a match-fixing investigation began to gather pace.
Liang Wenbo was first suspended in October, five more Chinese players were suspended on December 9, with Yan Bingtao the highest profile when he was hit with a suspension on December 12.
In January, just days before he was due to play at the Masters, Zhao was also suspended.
I was interviewing Shaun Murphy as the news broke, and the Magician’s response to Zhao’s suspension was: ‘I feel sick.’
While yet to be found guilty of anything, Zhao’s involvement stung more than most given his talent and how well-liked he was on tour.
Dave Gilbert later told Metro: He was the one who broke my heart, being caught up in all that scandal. He is an incredible player. He’s a lovely lad, I don’t know the kid, but he was always smiling and happy. Beautiful player to watch, got all the shots, he was the star, he was the Chinese Ronnie!’
On June 6, punishments were dished out to 10 players involved in the scandal and Zhao received the shortest ban, 20 months, as he was the only guilty party who had not actually fixed a match.
Part of the report from Sport Resolutions, the independent panel hearing the case, read: ‘Zhao Xintong, alone among the Respondent players, did not himself fix any match. His involvement was limited to placing bets for Yan [Bingtao] through Li [Hang], whereby he became liable as a party to the two match fixes.
‘He is good friends with Yan, whom he has known since the age of 16. He attempted to dissuade Yan from match fixing on both occasions with no success. He felt he had no other option but to place the bets for Yan, as Yan had requested. He has shown genuine remorse for his actions.’
Zhao accepted: ‘That he on 3rd March and 11th March 2022 he was a party to another player fixing two snooker matches. That between 1st September 2019 and 31st December 2022 he bet on snooker matches in breach of the rules.’
He was given a 2 year and 6 months suspension, reduced following early admissions and his plea of guilty, to 1 year and 8 months until 1 September 2024.
A spectacular return
Very little was heard or seen of Zhao during his ban, but that quickly changed soon after he was allowed to return to the sport in September.
He joined the amateur Q Tour circuit and was clearly a number of levels above the competition, winning two of his first three events and making two 147s.
This earned him an invite to UK Championship qualifying, which he stormed through to return to the main stages of a professional event for the first time since 2022, narrowly losing to Shaun Murphy at the Barbican.
On his return he said: ‘Two years ago I made a little mistake and now I come back, so I know how important snooker is for me, I want to come back to the snooker table and get trophies.’
More Q Tour wins followed and a return to the professional tour for the 2025/26 season was confirmed as a result.
Due to still competing under amateur status at this point, though, he entered World Championship qualifying at the first round. That did not slow him down, winning his four qualifiers and now finding himself in the final after four more wins at the Crucible.
Victories over Jak Jones, Lei Peifan and Chris Wakelin were relatively low-key, but a 17-7 demolition of Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semis was anything but.
His return to the sport has been impressive, clearly too good for the amateur game, but to continue to win at the highest level after a long spell away from competition is commendable.
The consensus opinion from other players when asked about Zhao is that he has done his time, served his punishment and we should all move on.
His opponent in the World Championship final, Williams, said just that: ‘He’s done his time, it should all be put behind him now, forget about it. He’s back with a vengeance. Good luck to him.’
World number one Judd Trump added: ‘If he’s allowed to play, he’s allowed to play and he’s looked very, very sharp when he’s come back. I can’t imagine it’s been easy to come back and find your form that quick.’
There did remain one bit of controversy over Zhao’s return as the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association (CBSA) confirmed in 2023 that they would be upholding the original suspension of 2 years and 6 months, before the reduction for early admissions and a guilty plea.
This seemed likely to see Zhao remain out of action until July 2025 as to return to competition, players had to be in ‘good standing with the official national federation’ of their country.
However, WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson told Metro in August 2024: ‘We’ve clarified that situation with China,’ he said. ‘Those bans stand in China, but what we do here at the WPBSA is recognise the ban of the independent sports tribunal. China does have the ability to put in its own process in its own country.
‘However, in terms of the things we do, we’re recognising the ban put in place by the independent tribunal. Our view is that he would have the opportunity to attempt to qualify back to the tour at the end of our ban.’
Fans will make their own minds up on to what extent their opinion of Zhao has been tainted by the controversy he was involved in.
If he beats Williams on Monday and becomes China’s first world champion then there could be plenty more fans of Zhao and snooker emerging in his home country.
Trump said of that possibility: ‘I imagine if he did win it then it would go berserk in China.’
The calm, cool Zhao does not seem likely to go berserk even if he lands the big one on Monday, but if his unique snooker journey takes him to the world title, Trump is likely to be correct and the sport will have a superstar on its hands.
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