World Champion Zhao's ranking event struggles continue, in real danger of missing out on big TV event

Zhao recently exited the German Masters in Berlin at the round of 32 stage after being defeated 5-3 by Tom Ford, having been 3-1 up.

From 11 ranking event appearances this season, only once has Zhao won more than two matches at a tournament. That came at the International Championship in November when he reached the semi-finals, bowing out to eventual champion Wu Yize.

At the time of writing, on the one-year/seasonal ranking list, Zhao is placed outside of the top 16 and is provisionally going to miss out on qualifying for February’s Players Championship event in Telford, the second Players Series leg of the term.

Only the top 16 from the seasonal list will be invited to the £500,000 world ranking event which will be the first professional competition that Channel 5 in the United Kingdom will broadcast.

Zhao currently short of the mark for Players qualification

There is only one counting event left to go until the qualification cut-off for the Players Championship: next week’s 32-player World Grand Prix in Hong Kong which is the opening Players Series event of the 2025/26 World Snooker Tour season.

Currently, Zhao is over £20,000 short of 16th place in the standings, meaning he will at the absolute minimum have to reach the semi-finals at the Kai Tak Arena (which offers £35,000 in prize money) in order to finish above the cut-off line - and even that will be dependent on other results.

The runner-up at the World Grand Prix pockets £80,000, with the winner collecting £180,000, therefore a run to the final would guarantee Zhao a place at the Players.

But that will be no easy feat, with his round one match in Hong Kong being against four-time world champion John Higgins, the player he was ousted by only a few weeks ago in the quarter-finals of the Masters at the Alexandra Palace. The winner of that tie will then face either number two seed Mark Selby, or debutant Aaron Hill in the last 32.

Looking further into this season’s schedule, Zhao may also be absent from the Tour Championship - the final event before the World Championship - for which only the top 12 from the one-year list qualify. However, the Welsh Open and World Open will both be played before that field is confirmed.

Away from ranking event action, Zhao trousered the £250,000 top prize for winning the Riyadh Season Championship in Saudi Arabia in November, although being a non-ranked invitational, not a single penny of that triumph went on to his ranking totals.

The 28-year-old from China defeated Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, and then Neil Robertson in the final to claim his first title since winning the world crown last May.

At other invitational events this campaign, Zhao made the semi-finals of both the Shanghai Masters and Champion of Champions, but again, neither help his cause when it comes to his one-year ranking.

Should Zhao not qualify for either the Players or Tour Championships, that means he would only have three more competitive outings - World Grand Prix, Welsh Open, World Open - until his title defence at the Crucible where he will play and complete his opening round match on day one.