How Zhao Xintong won the 2025 World Snooker Championship and made Crucible history for China

Zhao’s journey to Crucible glory was a remarkable and controversial one.

The 28-year-old is the first amateur player to win the professional game’s biggest title, and he is the third qualifier in the Crucible era (since 1977) to lift the iconic trophy, following the footsteps of Terry Griffiths (1979) and Shaun Murphy (2005). He is the youngest player since Murphy to claim the title.

Including the qualifying rounds, Zhao - who began right at the very start of those preliminaries - navigated his way through nine matches in total. No player has won as many en route to the crown.

The above information makes Zhao sound like a rank outsider, an unknown quantity - but of course, that is not the case.

An exciting prospect from a young age, Zhao was one of the hottest properties in the sport just a few years ago.

Having first qualified for the professional circuit in 2016, Zhao found the initial going tough and was relegated from the tour, although he immediately bounced back after graduating from Q School.

It was during this phase of his career that he started to really find his feet. Zhao's big breakthrough came at the 2021 UK Championship in York when he went all the way to final where he defeated Luca Brecel to win the sport's second most prestigious ranking event title.

A second ranking trophy arrived a few months later at the German Masters, and Zhao zoomed up to number six in the world rankings.

However, during the 2022/23 season, Zhao was suspended and later banned - alongside nine other Chinese professional players - for his part in the match-fixing scandal that rocked the sport, although he was found not to have actually fixed matches himself.

Having admitted early on and issuing a guilty plea, Zhao's ban of two years and six months was reduced to one year and eight months. That suspension from the sport's governing body - the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) - expired last September, meaning Zhao was able to play on the international amateur circuit.

Zhao entered the Q Tour - open to any amateur player across the world - in a bid to win back his professional tour card. There was some controversy around Zhao being allowed to enter this series, though, as he still had a domestic ban in China for his wrongdoings, imposed by the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association (CBSA) until 2025.

Q Tour entry rules state that a player must be in good standing with their national association, although tournament organisers - the WPBSA - were happy to allow Zhao to enter after their ban had expired.

His first steps back into the competitive arena took place on September 20th in Sofia at the National Snooker Academy of Bulgaria where he played in the second Q Tour event of the season. Zhao was ineligible to enter the first as he was still serving his ban.

Zhao defeated Lithuania's Vilius Schulte-Ebbert 3-0 in his opening match and went on to the last 64 where he lost 4-3 to fellow former professional Craig Steadman in what would be his only Q Tour defeat of the season.

At the next event, held in Stockholm, Zhao won eight matches - hitting a maximum 147 break in the process - to win the title, turning the tables on Steadman by defeating him 4-3 in the final.

Zhao then won events four, five and six - held in Manchester (compiling another 147), Vienna and Mons, respectively - racking up an incredible 32-match winning streak and guaranteeing top spot in the rankings despite there still being one event to go.

That feat won Zhao back his professional stripes with a two-year tour card that was due to be activated for the 2025/26 season.

Professional event invitations and the road to Crucible glory

Although his full-time return to the sport’s top tier wasn’t until the summer of 2025, Zhao got a chance to re-sample the big time as he was one of several top performing players from the amateur circuit over the past 12 months to receive an invite for the 2024 UK Championship qualifiers.

Zhao navigated the four-round qualifying gauntlet to reach the main draw at the Barbican in York - the same venue he won the Triple Crown event three years earlier. He was ousted 6-5 by Shaun Murphy in round one proper, in what was his first television appearance in around two years.

A few months later, Zhao was invited to the World Championship qualifiers where the same equation of needing to negotiate four preliminary matches stood in his way of a return to the Crucible.

The journey began on April 7th with a round one qualifier against Hong Kong’s Ka Wai Cheung, where he immediately issued a statement by making breaks of 128, 122, 77, 84, 90 and 98 as he established a 6-0 lead before going on to win 10-3 with another two centuries (132, 141).

The two-time ranking event champion was sternly examined in the next round, falling 2-0 behind to compatriot Long Zehaung and losing the first session, 5-4. Zhao won five frames on the spin - and survived a late rally from his opponent - before advancing with a 10-8 result.

In the penultimate qualifying round, Zhao registered three tons in comfortably dispatching another fellow countryman in Yuan Sijun, 10-4, to set up a tasty Judgement Day date with Elliot Slessor, one of the most improved players on the circuit over the past couple of seasons.

A high-quality affair ensued - each cueist fashioned three century breaks - and it was Zhao who won 10-8 to book the third Crucible appearance of his career. Throughout the qualifiers, Zhao totted up 12 centuries.

On the main stage just a few days later, Zhao crafted a 142 in defeating last year’s runner-up Jak Jones 10-4 in round one, before eliminating compatriot Lei Peifan - the conqueror of reigning champion Kyren Wilson on day one - 13-10 in the last 16.

The first amateur player to appear in the quarter-finals at the Crucible, Zhao dismissed fellow qualifier Chris Wakelin 13-5 in the last eight, before brushing aside seven-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 17-7 with a session to spare in the semi-finals.

During that last four tie, Zhao won the second session 8-0, inflicting O'Sullivan's fourth Crucible session whitewash.

In the first all-left handed Crucible final, Zhao was up against another ‘Class of 92’ member in Mark Williams, who at the age of 50, was the oldest player to reach the Championship final there. With a difference of 22 years, it was the biggest age gap between two finalists in the tournament’s history.

Like he did for most of his matches throughout the campaign, Zhao settled in quickly and established a commanding lead early on, finishing the opening session 7-1 up. He kept three-time champion Williams at arm’s length in the second session, before extending his lead to seven, eight, and nine in the third session, and reaching the hill by the end of it at 17-8 up.

The coronation had to wait a bit in the evening session as Williams produced his best spell in the final, taking all four frames of the mini-session to briefly threaten the greatest comeback of all time. However, Zhao got the job done in frame 30 to record an historic 18-12 victory.

From not even being able to enter competitions at the start of the season because he was still banned, to slogging away in snooker clubs on the amateur tour, to coming through a gauntlet of qualifying matches, to winning snooker’s ultimate prize at the Crucible - Zhao Xintong has written quite a sporting story.