Zhao Xintong relishing prospect of Chinese snooker 'mega-match' at Crucible

Defending Crucible champion Zhao had to weather a storm on the opening day of the televised stages in Sheffield as he eventually defeated qualifier Liam Highfield, 10-7, to reach the last 16 of snooker’s flagship event.

The Chinese ace - who is the outright title favourite following a recent clean sweep of Players Series titles - was out-of-sorts for spells during his first round engagement, but still managed to compile a hat-trick of century breaks in progressing.

Next up for Zhao will be a round two meeting with either number 16 seed Ding Junhui or two-time Crucible semi-finalist David Gilbert.

Ding looks well-placed to progress from that match as he leads 7-2 after the opening session. The duo are scheduled to conclude on Monday morning.

The biggest all-Chinese snooker clash, ever?

In his post-match press conference on Saturday night, Zhao was asked about the prospect of facing China’s original snooker trailblazer Ding on the sport’s grandest stage, next week.

Ding was the player who facilitated the big snooker boom in the Far East following his title win at the 2005 China Open in Beijing.

Having turned 18-years-old during the event, Ding defeated seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry in the final to claim his maiden ranking event crown.

Whilst Ding has enjoyed a long and successful career - capturing the Masters, three UK Championship titles, and briefly being the world number one - he has yet to win the sport’s ultimate prize at the Crucible.

The closest he has come was a decade ago, when he made the final for the first, and to date only time, but his hopes of the world title were dashed by Mark Selby who reclaimed the trophy.

Speaking about his revered compatriot, Zhao revealed that he watched on TV all of Ding’s matches from his Crucible run in 2016.

“Every match I watched it. He played really, really well but Mark Selby is a very strong snooker player. But Ding deserves this world championship” said Zhao.

Ding was the first Asian player to reach the world final, but Zhao was the first from the continent to win it, an historic feat he realised last year following an 18-12 victory over Mark Williams in the final.

But should Zhao face Ding in a blockbuster clash next week at the Crucible, the defending champion believes it could be the most watched snooker match in China, ever - with even more viewers than his world title triumph from 12 months ago.

Asked if this was the case, 29-year-old Zhao said: “I don't know, maybe yeah, I think so. And yeah we can have good snooker. Try to enjoy that.

“We are good friends. Very special and hopeful. We can enjoy this.”

The two most successful Chinese players of all-time have met six times on the professional circuit before, although the first five of those were in the last decade, with Ding winning the first four.

But Zhao is a completely different beast these days, dispatching Ding in their most recent meeting earlier this season on home soil at the Shanghai Masters with a 6-1 win in the quarter-finals.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 World Snooker Championship, visit our tournament information centre here.