Zhao Xintong's earnings surpass seven figures since big time snooker return last year

The Chinese superstar recently won the fourth ranking event title of his career at the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong after defeating compatriot, practise partner and good friend Zhang Anda 10-6 in the final.

The triumph saw Zhao pocket the £180,000 top prize, and he also cashed a further £10,000 bonus for making the tournament’s highest break of 145 during the title match.

This latest success means that Zhao has now earned over £1.2 million in prize money on the professional circuit in just over nine months.

It’s an incredible story when you consider that Zhao didn’t even have a professional tour card last season, although, of course, he was already a major champion within the sport.

Zhao’s big career breakthrough came in 2021 when won the snooker’s second most prestigious ranking accolade, the UK Championship. Only a few weeks later, he doubled his title tally at the German Masters.

But in the following season, Zhao was suspended, and then later banned from the World Snooker Tour for his role in the Chinese match-fixing scandal that rocked the sport (although he was found not to have fixed matches himself).

That ban ended in September 2024 meaning he could go about regaining his professional tour card. He did that by storming the secondary-tier Q Tour, winning four consecutive events and making a couple of 147s for good measure, too. He topped the rankings with an event to spare - despite having still been banned for Event 1 - to earn promotion to the big time for the next season.

However, due to his efforts on the amateur scene, he was selected as a wildcard for both the UK and World Championship qualifying rounds. At both qualifiers he navigated four rounds to reach the main draw, TV stages in York and Sheffield, respectively.

He was ousted 6-5 by Shaun Murphy in round one of the UK, but created history at the Crucible, winning a further five matches to become China’s and Asia’s first world professional snooker champion - and he technically did it as an amateur. The historic feat earned him £500,000.

Back on the top flight full-time this season, Zhao’s form has been indifferent at times, but he has still been picking up trophies.

He made £100,000 from his first two outings of the term - reaching the semis of the Shanghai Masters and the last 16 of the Saudi Arabia Masters - before a lean spell that saw him not get past the last 32 of any of the next five tournaments.

Results really picked up in November, though. He won five matches and £33,000 at the International Championship in Nanjing, bowing out to compatriot and eventual champion Wu Yize in the semi-finals.

Zhao then flew in on the day of his opening match at the Champion of Champions in Leicester, defeating Mark Allen and then Kyren Wilson before losing to Judd Trump in the last four. He consoled himself with £30,000 for another semi-final run.

‘The Cyclone’s’ first title with the world crown was just around the corner at the Riyadh Season Championship invitational in Saudi Arabia where he eliminated Shaun Murphy, Trump, and then Neil Robertson in the final to collect the £250,000 winner’s purse on offer.

At the first two Triple Crown events of the campaign Zhao won his opening match before exiting after his second, pocketing £15,000 from the UK Championship and £40,000 from the Masters.

After an early loss at the German Masters in Berlin, Zhao travelled to the Far East for the World Grand Prix under pressure because of his one-year ranking, needing a deep run to qualify for the upcoming Players Championship. And that’s what he delivered - and more some - as his first ranking event triumph as the Crucible king pushed him up to sixth in the seasonal standings, guaranteeing him qualification for the Players, and surely the Tour Championship, too.

On the overall two-year world ranking list, Zhao is now seventh. With no serious prize money to defend until the 2027 World Championship, the 28-year-old will be in contention to become world number one at some point this calendar year.