2025 World Snooker Championship Final: Zhao Xintong v Mark Williams - Preview, start times, stats

The first all-left handed Crucible title decider, it's a case of youth versus experience with Zhao featuring in his first world final, and four-time champion Williams being in his fifth.

Either way, history will be made. Zhao could become the first Chinese player to win snooker's ultimate prize, while 50-year-old Williams is aiming to be the oldest-ever winner of the Championship, eclipsing Ronnie O'Sullivan who was 46-years-old when he triumphed in 2022.

Williams has already broken a record by being the oldest Crucible finalist of all-time. If the Welshman lifts the trophy on Monday, he would also be the oldest winner of a professional ranking event, surpassing fellow countryman, the late, great Ray Reardon.

Zhao and Williams’ route to the 2025 Crucible final

Both players have been the ironmen of the competition in various ways.

Zhao's story is remarkable. Winner of the UK Championship - the second biggest ranking title on the professional tour - in 2021, and a former world number six, Zhao was banned from the sport in 2023 for his involvement in the match-fixing scandal alongside nine other Chinese players.

Found to have not fixed matches himself, Zhao's ban expired last September and he was able to win back his professional tour card via snooker's secondary circuit, the Q Tour.

Open to all amateur hopefuls, Zhao won four successive tournaments on the Tour and finished top of the rankings with an event to spare, thus gaining promotion back to the top tier from next season.

However, along with other top performing amateurs from across the past 12 months, Zhao was invited to this year's World Championship where he began his campaign at the very start - the first qualifying round at the English Institute of Sport.

The two-time ranking event winner navigated all four qualification rounds to reach the main draw at the Crucible for just the third time in his career. In front of the television cameras, Zhao scored his second match win on the grand stage as he dismissed last year's runner-up Jak Jones 10-4 in round one proper.

In the last 16, he survived a late rally from compatriot Lei Peifan - the conqueror of reigning champion Kyren Wilson on the opening day - to win 13-10, in the process creating history as the first amateur player to reach the quarter-finals of the blue riband event.

Despite being a largely low-quality affair, Zhao comfortably eliminated fellow qualifier Chris Wakelin 13-5 in the last eight, before sensationally defeating seven-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 17-7 - with a session to spare - in the semi-finals. During that match, Zhao inflicted a second session 8-0 whitewash of his opponent.

The reasons for Zhao's absence from the professional tour are well documented, but prior to his latest Crucible campaign, he had played just one match on a big stage in nearly two-and-a-half years. That came at the UK Championship earlier this season to which he was also invited to and went through the qualifying gauntlet before being ousted 6-5 by Shaun Murphy in round one.

Williams - world champion in 2000, 2003 and 2018 - is one of the all-time greats, but his run over the past fortnight has been a surprise to many given his lead-up to the tournament.

There had been nothing to write home about for Williams since the new year, and at his last competitive outing, the Tour Championship, he lost in the opening round to Ding Junhui, 10-3.

Following that early exit, Williams reiterated ongoing issues he was having with eyesight, saying that whoever qualified for the Crucible would want to draw him in the first round.

Well, the cueist who did draw him was exciting Chinese youngster Wu Yize, who was having a breakthrough season after reaching his first two ranking event finals.

Wu was on the cusp of leading 9-7, but a crucial miss in frame 16 was a catalyst for a three-frame winning streak for Williams who advanced with a 10-8 result.

Williams couldn't relax in round two either as he ended the stubborn challenge of Iran's number one Hossein Vafaei, 13-10, to set up a romantic quarter-final contest with fellow 'Class of 92' graduate John Higgins.

The last eight meeting was a Crucible classic. Having battled back from 12-8 down, Higgins was effectively one pot away from going through, but he rattled the final blue into a baulk pocket.

Arriving at the table with a very tricky shot, Williams coolly sank the blue, obtained perfect position on the pink, and cleared up to win an absolute thriller on the very last black.

In the semi-finals, Williams came up against world number one and pre-tournament favourite Judd Trump, the player who had defeated him on the last ball of the final at the big-money Saudi Arabia Masters earlier in the season.

Trump - who set a new seasonal record for the most number of century breaks during his quarter-final victory over Luca Brecel - established a 7-3 advantage. However, Williams managed to level the tie by the end of the second session, before making gains in the back nine of the match and coming through as a 17-14 victor.

Zhao v Williams career head-to-head record and final thoughts

In terms of frames taken part in at the Crucible this year, Williams has played considerably more than Zhao - 97 to 79. Zhao had the luxury of Saturday off because of his comprehensive win over O'Sullivan, while Williams was in action against Trump for both the morning and evening sessions that same day.

However, Zhao's World Championship campaign began nearly a month ago, on April 7th at the qualifiers; he has won eight matches to get here.

In terms of their career head-to-head record, Williams leads 4-2, although Zhao has won their last two encounters. Their most recent came in the last 32 of the 2022 German Masters - Zhao won 5-3 and went on to lift the trophy at the Tempodrom.

Williams and Zhao have played each other once before in the World Championship, although under very different circumstances to what they will get involved in over the UK bank holiday weekend.

In 2017 - the last time Williams had to qualify for the Crucible - they met in the first qualifying round (last 144) at Ponds Forge. Williams won 10-7.

The 2025 World Snooker Championship final is essentially a coin flip. Zhao has not been behind by more than one frame at any point across his four matches at the Crucible - it would be interesting to see how he'd cope being adrift to someone as experienced as Williams in the final.

As for Williams, he has survived pretty much most scenarios in this year's event - Wu nearly went two up on him with three to play, Higgins missed essentially match-ball blue, while Trump established a four-frame cushion. Could Williams’ name be on the trophy again?

The session times for the 2025 World Snooker Championship final are:

• Session one: Sunday 4th May from 13:00BST (eight scheduled frames)
• Session two: Sunday 4th May from 19:00BST (nine scheduled frames)
• Session three: Monday 5th May from 13:00BST (eight scheduled frames)
• Session four: Monday 5th May from 19:00BST (concluding frames)

Please visit our 2025 World Snooker Championship tournament information centre here for details on the draw, results, format and order of play.