Zhao Xintong became the first Chinese player to be crowned snooker world champion after holding off a late rally from Mark Williams to create history at the Crucible and complete a sensational career comeback.
The 28-year-old only returned to competitive snooker in September last year after being handed a 20-month suspension for his part in the match-fixing scandal which resulted in a ban for 10 Chinese players. He was forced to begin on the sport’s amateur tour and arrived in Sheffield without professional status.
However, he will leave with a £500,000 winner’s cheque and the honour of being the first Chinese player to win a world title after proving far too strong for Williams, who had defied his own pre-tournament expectations to reach a fifth world final. Zhao had to start in the first round of qualifying due to his amateur status, winning nine matches and becoming only the third qualifier to go all the way since Shaun Murphy in 2005 and Terry Griffiths in 1979.
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But Zhao’s victory perhaps carries much more significance for snooker as a whole. The sport is played by hundreds of millions in China and there are more than 300,000 snooker halls. The country has craved its first world champion since Ding Junhui announced himself on the world stage 20 years ago with victory in the UK Championship.
That moment has finally arrived courtesy of Zhao, one of the most exceptionally gifted players the sport has seen and who was championed for stardom from a young age by Jimmy White and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Zhao set the tone for a dominant victory in Sheffield as early as the opening session, which he won 7-1 in scintillating fashion. Williams responded in Sunday’s evening session to make it 11-6 overnight but Zhao allayed any fears of nerves taking control on the final day, winning six of the eight frames on Monday afternoon to move to the verge of the title.
Williams at least managed to avoid the ignominy of being the first player to lose with a session to spare since 1993 and, after winning the first four frames of the evening session to narrow a 17-8 deficit to 17-12, some began to wonder if the Crucible was witnessing the opening stages of the greatest comeback the sport has ever seen. But Zhao held his nerve in the 30th frame to get over the line with a break of 87 to write his name into the history books. — Guardian
