Zhao makes history as China's first World Snooker champion

LAST UPDATE | 10 hrs ago

ZHAO XINTONG WAS was crowned China’s first world snooker champion after withstanding a stirring comeback from Mark Williams to complete an 18-12 win at the Crucible.

Resuming the final session one frame short of victory, Zhao was forced to wait for his history-making moment as the Welsh veteran reeled off four in a row to stretch the match beyond a mid-session interval.

Williams, at 50 the oldest finalist in Crucible history, had his chances to further reduce the deficit before Zhao recovered his poise to rocket in match-clinching break of 87, before celebrating by raising the Chinese flag.

In doing so Zhao, who earns the famous trophy and a cheque for £500,000, also became only the fourth qualifier and the first amateur player to triumph at the Crucible, having lost his tour card in January 2023 for his part in a match-fixing scandal.

Zhao had admitted being party to an effort to fix or contrive to fix two matches involving his compatriot Yan Bingtao, the former Masters winner, and despite frequently expressing contrition for his involvement there may be some who believe his triumph is a tainted one.

His win over Williams was Zhao’s ninth of the tournament, a record for any champion, and his 47th in 49 matches since he embarked on his comeback with a 3-0 whitewash of Lithuanian Vilius Schulte-Ebbert in the inauspicious surroundings of a Q Tour event in Sofia in September.

Two hundred and twenty-seven days later, Zhao went one better than Ding Junhui, who kick-started the Chinese snooker revolution when he swept to his first of three UK titles in 2005 but had never quite managed to emulate that achievement at the Crucible.

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Zhao has long been touted as Ding’s heir apparent, with Ronnie O’Sullivan and Jimmy White singling him out as a future star soon after he was handed his first tour card in 2016, and three-time winner Williams added to the praise shortly after the bruising afternoon session, describing his opponent as “probably the best potter I’ve ever seen”.

Williams had defied his own low expectations by forcing his way into his fifth Crucible final and eclipsing the previous record set by his fellow Welshman Ray Reardon who was 49 when he lost the 1982 final to Alex Higgins.

Blighted by eye problems and booked in for lens replacement surgery this summer, Williams nevertheless dredged up every inch of his vast experience to edge past fellow veteran John Higgins in a quarter-final classic, then recovered from a 5-1 deficit to sink world number one Judd Trump in the last four.

Zhao’s lightning start to their seventh career meeting – Williams got the better of a first round qualifying clash in 2017 when he had temporarily slid out of the world’s top 64 – effectively ended any hopes the Welshman had of clawing his way back to wrest a fourth world crown.

A 7-1 deficit instead raised the prospect of Zhao, who had hammered O’Sullivan with a session to spare in the last four, repeating the feat and becoming the first man to lift the title in an afternoon since Stephen Hendry obliterated Jimmy White in 1993.

Those fears were not eased after a second session that left Williams five frames adrift overnight at 11-6 and it was not until a gutsy break of 67 in the 23rd frame that the Welshman guaranteed the fans – who had forked out for tickets for the Championship’s final session – would at least get to witness the historic moment.

When Zhao ran aground on a break of 30 in the opener, Williams proceeded to give them more than their money’s worth, earning a standing ovation at the interval after reeling off four frames in a row, including his sole century of the final, to reduce the deficit to 17-12.

Williams had two chances to further reduce the deficit, before Zhao held his nerve to wrap up a victory that was watched by an estimated 150 million television audience in his homeland.

Written by Press Association and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.