Zhao Xintong marks the story by becoming the first Asian player to win the world snooker championship by beating Mark Williams in the final (18-12) on Monday in Sheffield. The 28 -year -old was only the second Chinese to reach the final of the world championship, after Ding Junhui in 2016. But while Ding had been beaten by English Mark Selby in the final nine years ago, Zhao achieved the feat of defeating the Welsh, triple world champion.
“I can’t believe what I did. It’s crazy“Said Zhao.”I was very nervous tonight. Mark is always a high -level player and he put so much pressure on me. It’s the best“He added. While his opponent praised the”brilliant tournament“from the one who is”The New Star“According to him.
He had eliminated O’Sullivan
He had already created the surprise by eliminating the English legend Ronnie O’Sullivan, who is his “idol”, in the semi-final. Zhao, nicknamed “The Cyclone”, is playing as an amateur since September and continues his return to the front of the stage after a 20 -month suspension for being involved in a scandal of rigged matches and Paris in 2023.
Due to his amateur status, he had to go through four qualification towers to access the main draw of the world championship, to the crucible theater of Sheffield, a temple of the snooker in the United Kingdom. Zhao started snooker at the age of eight. In 2015, then a teenager, he said in a documentary that he wanted to become like Ding, a pioneer of the snooker in China, who has been in many emulators for many.
In 2021, he won the British championship, but two years later, he was sanctioned like nine other Chinese players in a rigged matches. Two players, Liang Wenbo and Li Hang were banned for life. Zhao, who had helped another player faked two games and had bet on them, received the shortest sanction (20 months). The snooker is very popular in China, where the authorities created an academy in Beijing to train the best young people, successfully since Bai Yulu won the women’s world championship in 2024.
