Champion Zhao Xintong impossible shots World Snooker 2025

 

Zhao's journey throughout this Championship has been a remarkable one.

An exciting prospect from a young age, Zhao first turned professional in 2016 having reached the second of his two World Amateur Snooker Championship finals.

As is the case for many new professionals, life on the sport's top tier was initially very tough, and Zhao was relegated from the tour, although he immediately bounced back through graduation from the Q School.

Zhao's big breakthrough came at the 2021 UK Championship in York when he went all the way to final where he defeated Luca Brecel to win the sport's second most prestigious ranking title.

A second ranking event trophy arrived a few months later at the German Masters, and Zhao zoomed up to number six in the world rankings.

However, during the 2022/23 season, Zhao was suspended and later banned - alongside nine other Chinese professional players - for his part in the match-fixing scandal that rocked the sport, although he was found not to have actually fixed matches himself.

Having admitted early and issuing a guilty plea, Zhao's ban of two years and six months was reduced to one year and eight months. That suspension from the sport's governing body - the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) - expired last September, meaning Zhao was able to play on the international amateur circuit.

Champion Zhao Xintong impossible shots World Snooker 2025

Zhao entered the Q Tour - open to any amateur player across the world - in a bid to win back his professional tour card. He was sensational on the secondary circuit, winning four successive events, making two maximum 147 breaks, and finishing top of the rankings with an event still to go.

That achievement re-earned him his professional stripes, and it also won him an invite to this season's UK Championship and World Championship events on the World Snooker Tour, as one of several top performing amateur players from across the past 12 months.

At the UK Championship, Zhao navigated the four-round qualifying gauntlet to reach the main draw, where he was ousted by Shaun Murphy, 6-5, in round one proper in his first television appearance in around two years.

A similar scenario faced Zhao in the World Championship qualifiers in April, but again, he negotiated the four preliminary matches to make the main draw for the Crucible for the third time in his career.

On the main stage a few days later, Zhao defeated last year's runner-up Jak Jones 10-4 in round one, before eliminating compatriot Lei Peifan - the conqueror of reigning champion Kyren Wilson on day one - 13-10 in the last 16.

The first amateur player to appear in the quarter-finals at the Crucible, Zhao dismissed fellow qualifier Chris Wakelin 13-5 in the last eight, before brushing aside seven-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 17-7 with a session to spare in the semi-finals.

During that last four tie, Zhao won the second session 8-0, inflicting O'Sullivan's fourth Crucible session whitewash.

‘Class of 92’ members would be seen off in consecutive rounds as he defeated Williams in the final.

In total, Zhao has had to win 111 frames to win this Championship. He also won nine matches - no-one in the history of the tournament has had to win so many before getting their hands on the trophy. Zhao played his first shot in this year’s competition on April 7th in the opening qualifying round at the English Institute of Sport.

This is an historic day for professional snooker as Zhao is crowned the first world champion from China, and Asia.