Zhao Xintong makes blistering World Snooker Championship return following ban

Zhao was suspended from the professional circuit during the 2022/23 season and later found guilty for his part in the Chinese match-fixing scandal that rocked the sport, although he was found not to have fixed matches himself.

Following early admissions and a guilty plea, Zhao’s punishment was a relatively short one. His ban with snooker’s governing body - the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) - expired last September, meaning he was able to compete on the sport’s amateur tour in a bid to win back his professional tour card for next season.

The former top 16 star was sensational on this season’s Q Tour circuit - essentially snooker’s secondary tour behind the professional ranks - as he won four consecutive events to finish top of the rankings and earn a two-year World Snooker Tour card starting from the 2025/26 season. He also constructed two maximum 147 breaks on the Tour - in successive events.

However, in addition to regaining his professional stripes, Zhao also won invites into the qualifying rounds for both the UK Championship earlier in the term, and the end-of-season World Championship, despite still technically being of amateur status.

Having to start in the opening qualifying round, Zhao won four matches to qualify for the main draw, televised stages of the UK Championship in York where he narrowly lost 6-5 to Shaun Murphy in the opening round.

Zhao faces the same equation over the next several days at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield in order to reach the Crucible Theatre for the third time in his career.

But the 28-year-old has made an eye-catching start to his qualifying campaign as he breezed past Hong Kong cueist Ka, completing victory in their concluding session on Tuesday afternoon.

Zhao fashioned breaks of 128 and 122 in the opening two frames before efforts of 77, 84, 90 and 98 helped him to a resounding 6-0 lead.

Ka, who is in his rookie season as a professional, got on the board with frame seven (57 break), but Zhao had the final says of the first session on Monday, taking the next two frames for an 8-1 lead and compiling a 132 in the final frame.

Returning the next day, Ka made the scoreline a bit more respectable as he strung together back-to-back frames (59 break, frame 11), but Zhao got the job done before the mid-session interval, saving his best until last with a run of 141 which is the highest of this year's Championship so far.

Next up for Zhao in the second qualifying round is an encounter with fellow countryman Long Zehuang that starts on Thursday morning.

Zhao is fancied by bookmakers to qualify for this year’s Crucible, and is rated above several top 16 players to actually go all the way and become China’s first World Snooker Champion.

For all the results and the full draw for the 2025 World Snooker Championship qualifying rounds, please visit our information centre here.