On 5th May 2025, Zhao Xintong made history by becoming the first man from China (and indeed Asia) to win the World Snooker Championship. He beat three-time world champion Mark Williams 18-12 in a scoreline that, if anything, flatters the Welshman. The fact that he had to come through four qualification matches before making it to the tournament proper, makes Zhao’s achievement all the more impressive. Although there will be an inevitable shadow cast by the player’s suspension following an investigation into match fixing (more of which later).
How Zhao Made History at the Crucible
| Round | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | Jak Jones | 10-4 |
| Round 2 | Lei Peifan | 13-10 |
| Quarter-Final | Chris Wakelin | 13-5 |
| Semi-Final | Ronnie O’Sullivan | 17-7 |
| Final | Mark Williams | 18-12 |
Despite the possible controversy, there can be little doubt that, based upon the snooker he played, Zhao deserved to win at the Crucible. After negotiating the qualifying rounds, Zhao faced the losing finalist from the 2024 World Championship, Jak Jones (who had beaten Judd Trump in the 2024 quarter-final and Stuart Bingham in the semis). Zhao made short work of the Welshman, winning 10-4.
Next up was fellow Chinese player, Lei Peifan, whose only tournament win came in the Scottish Open in December 2024. It wasn’t all one-way traffic here, but Zhao had the poise and shots to get the job done and eased into the last eight with a 13-10 scoreline.
Based on rankings, Zhao’s quarter-final opponent should have been Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen. But, despite making a 147 break, Allen lost out in his last-16 match to Chris Wakelin, with the man from Rugby winning by the relatively emphatic scoreline of 13-6.
Zhao was even more emphatic in his victory over Wakelin, however, posting a 13-5 win and setting up a mouthwatering semi-final against his idol, the inimitable Ronnie O’Sullivan. Luckily for Zhao, Ronnie had been scraping through the rounds with the kind of snooker that is several levels below what he had shown in the past. But Zhao showed no mercy against his hero and played the seven-time world champion off the baize, rattling off frame after frame to claim victory with a session to spare.
The 17-7 scoreline was something of an embarrassment to O’Sullivan, but he’d been having problems with his cue throughout the tournament and Zhao was simply too good on the day.
The Final
And so to the final, where Zhao’s opponent was the evergreen 50-year-old Welshman, Mark Williams. Williams had surpassed all expectations by making it to the final, not least because his eyesight is failing and he was due to have surgery to replace his lens in the summer. But the three-time world champ had been rolling back the years, playing some outstanding snooker to get past fellow “Class of ‘92” player John Higgins in the quarters and world number one Judd Trump in the semis.
It was Zhao who took an early advantage in the final, however, winning the opening three frames (with a century break thrown in). Williams hit back before the mid-session interval, but Zhao went into top gear after the break, winning four frames on the bounce to lead 7-1 after Session 1. When the Chinese player won the first two frames of the next session, Williams fans feared a drubbing. But the Welshman possesses more grit than most players and he battled back to an extent, putting some decent breaks together, to leave Zhao with an overnight lead of 11-6.
Zhao pressed home his advantage in Session 3 with a series of almost flawless frames to go into the final session 17-8 ahead. With just one more frame required for victory, many fans watching on TV and especially those with tickets for the Crucible to watch the action live, prayed for an unlikely comeback from Williams.
With the pressure off, Williams looked like he might deliver, and won the first four frames, including a break of 101 in the first of the session, his first ton of the final. That burst of frames at least took the match to the mid-session interval, although Williams still had a mountain to climb at 12-17 behind.
After the interval, Zhao did what he’d be doing all tournament and made an impressive frame-winning break (this time of 87) to clinch the match and the World Championship.
Zhao Suspension from Snooker
As undoubtedly brilliant as Zhao played to become the world champion, it would be remiss not to mention the reason he was classified as an amateur at the tournament and why he had to go through the qualifying rounds despite clearly being one of the better players in attendance. It goes back to January 2023 when the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) – the sport’s governing body – suspended Zhao and nine other players from China after an investigation into match fixing. The players faced various charges including fixing matches or conspiracy to fix matches, relating to games played between 2014 and 2022. Although Zhao was not found guilty of fixing any matches himself, he was “a party to fixing the results of two matches”. A disciplinary tribunal concluded that Zhao “did not himself fix any match” and that his involvement was “limited to placing bets” for another player (Yan Bingtao, who was banned until December 2027).
Given that Zhao has served his suspension and worked his way through the qualifiers prior to the World Championship, people will have to make their own minds up about whether his achievement is lessened by his charges and suspension. But there’s little doubt, as the first world champion from China, he is likely to become a national hero in his homeland.
Overseas Snooker World Champions
After Zhao’s victory over Williams, there have been six non-British world champions. Perhaps surprisingly, the first of these came way back in 1952. The next wasn’t for almost 30 years. Here are the five previous world champions who hailed from outside of the UK.
| Player | Country | Year Won |
|---|---|---|
| Horace Lindrum | Australia | 1952 |
| Cliff Thorburn | Canada | 1980 |
| Ken Doherty | Ireland | 1997 |
| Neil Robertson | Australia | 2010 |
| Luca Brecel | Belgium | 2023 |