Stephen Hendry names player he believes will win 'at least four titles' this snooker season

Seven-times world champion Hendry made the call when selecting his five players for this season’s World Snooker Tour ‘Fantasy Five’ game for which you must pick five cueists from across the world rankings.

From the top bracket, Scotsman Hendry said: “I have gone Zhao Xintong because I think he'll win at least four titles this season.”

Zhao only returned to the top-flight on a full-time basis last term after technically winning the 2025 World Snooker Championship title as an amateur without a tour card.

China’s and Asia’s first Crucible champion, Zhao initially endured a frustrating few months whilst wearing the world crown, but after a couple of deep runs he secured success at the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in November, defeating Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, and then Neil Robertson in the final to pocket the £250,000 first prize in Saudi Arabia.

Following disappointments at the UK Championship and Masters either side of Christmas, Zhao produced a golden spell of form across late winter and into the spring, winning all three components of the Player Series - the World Grand Prix, the Players Championship, and the Tour Championship - within the same season, the first player in history to do so.

Zhao went to the 2026 World Snooker Championship as the pre-tournament favourite, but his bid to break the ‘Crucible Curse’ was ended by an inspired Shaun Murphy in the quarter-finals.

Despite this, 36-time ranking event winner Hendry - who on commentary in Sheffield forecasted Zhao to win at least a quartet of world titles - is backing the Chinese to at least repeat his four-title haul from last season.

Hendry backing Allen to bounce back from nightmare Crucible miss

As for his other Fantasy Five picks, Hendry believes that Mark Allen will recover from his shocking miss at the Crucible and return fruitful results over the coming months.

Winner of the English Open last September, former world number one Allen was within a black off its spot of reaching a maiden world championship final when he led eventual title winner Wu Yize 16-15 in the semi-finals. But Allen missed it, and went on to be denied in a deciding frame.

Former Crucible winner Ken Doherty since advised Allen to “get back on the table”, and now Hendry has given encouragement to the Northern Irishman by putting him in his team and saying: “I think he's going to shrug off that black and be a force.”

Hendry’s other selections were players who enjoyed significant career breakthroughs last season.

Number three in his squad was Jack Lisowski, who - having lost all six of his previous ranking event final appearances - finally won his maiden title in emotional circumstances at the 2025 Northern Ireland Open.

‘Jackpot’ went on the reach the Welsh Open final - banking the £150,000 Home Nations Series seasonal order of merit bonus in the process - and Hendry feels that Lisowski could kick on after removing that monkey from his back.

Chang Bingyu and Liam Pullen completed Hendry’s line-up. Chang - who was back on the pro tour last season - had previously been talked up by Ronnie O’Sullivan, and the Chinese youngster didn’t disappoint, reaching his first ranking event final at the Scottish Open, and conjuring up one of the most extraordinary, perfect displays of snooker when he whitewashed Shaun Murphy at the Welsh Open with a 100% pot success rate and four century breaks.

Hendry thinks that Chang could be on his way towards the top: “I raved about him last year. He proved some of his performances...especially the win against Murphy obviously was a highlight but I think he's going to be a top 16 player for the next couple of seasons.”

20-year-old Englishman Pullen was relegated from snooker’s premiership in April 2025 but he immediately bounced back through Q School and then went strength to strength upon his return.

Pullen defeated four-time world champion John Higgins en route to the last eight of the 2025 Xi’an Grand Prix - his debut quarter-final outing at a ranking event.

The youngster then ended his season on an exhilarating high, navigating all four rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw, televised stages of the 2026 World Snooker Championship where on his Crucible debut he kept number 13 seed Chris Wakelin close before a 10-6 defeat.