Does snooker have its Luke Littler moment? Perhaps not on these shores – that came when Alex Higgins emerged like a hurricane in the Seventies – but, at a global level, this promises to be equally seismic.
Zhao Xintong, a player nicknamed the Cyclone, has become China’s first world champion, in front of a television audience in his homeland of more than 100 million. After completing his winning break, Zhao draped himself in the red and gold China flag for a hugely symbolic moment in snooker history that has been promised ever since Barry Hearn had the vision to take Steve Davis and his stable of players to the Far East some 40 years ago.
After dismantling Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-7 with a full session to spare in the semi-final, Zhao dispatched a second all-time snooker great on the Crucible stage, surviving a late Mark Williams rally to still comfortably prevail 18-12.
There had only previously been five winners from outside the United Kingdom since the first World Snooker Championship 98 years ago, but Zhao is the first from Asia, a continent where the sport has steadily flourished since being admitted into the Asian Games and World Games at the turn of the century.
‘He’s as good to watch as O’Sullivan’
Ding Junhui was the original trailblazer, reaching the final in 2016, but Zhao has long since been identified by his snooker peers as the player who might actually dominate. O’Sullivan calls him the “Roger Federer of snooker” for his style of play around the baize. Zhao first met Williams when he was only 13, beating him in an exhibition in China with a century break.
“He’s probably the best potter I have ever seen,” Williams said following his defeat. “There’s a new superstar of the game. He bashed me up, he bashed Ronnie up, he bashed everyone up. It’s frightening to watch. He’s as good to watch as O’Sullivan when he was younger. He strolls around the table like he’s walking to the toilet, to the park, or something. He’ll be a national hero. It could open up floodgates everywhere. Darts has Luke Littler. Snooker needed something like this.”
It was a gracious response, but this is still no unblemished fairy tale. You may have heard that the 28-year-old Zhao is also the first amateur and third qualifier to become world champion, despite winning the UK Championship in 2021 and being ranked sixth in the world by the end of the 2021-22 season. It should have been the launchpad for his career but his snooker world came crashing down within a year. Zhao was provisionally suspended in January 2023 and ultimately banned for 20 months following snooker’s biggest match-fixing investigation.
He was one of 10 Chinese players suspended but received the shortest ban after it was found that he had not himself thrown matches but placed two bets for his friend Yan Bingtao through another Chinese player. Zhao also quickly admitted the offences and his contrition has seemed genuine. “Living alone overseas was boring, in a closed life, and I stupidly chose betting to [pass] some time – I did not realise that betting influenced me like a monster,” he said upon his return. “I paid a big price for my stupidity and spent every day in remorse. You cherish what you lose. No words can describe my love for snooker. Let me prove it to you with better results.”
He has certainly achieved that, returning to Q Tour as an amateur last September, where he won four events before amassing 12 century breaks in four qualifying matches just to reach the Crucible. It meant that his own World Championship journey actually started at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield on April 7.
“I can’t believe what I’ve done this month,” he said. “I’m not tired. I had a dream. I’m not sure it is true. It’s unbelievable. I played two of my idols. When I shook hands with Mark, I nearly cried.”
Asked about his ban, he said: “I just want to keep going.”
Although there are 300,000 snooker clubs in China, Zhao now bases himself at Victoria’s Snooker Academy in Sheffield, which is a 10-minute walk from the Crucible, and he will be among five Chinese players ranked in the world’s top 16 next season.
Just as against O’Sullivan on Thursday and Friday, it should be stressed that Zhao was rather helped here by the unexpected flurry of unforced errors from his opponent. The main damage was done when Williams lost Sunday’s opening session 7-1 but, after resuming 11-6 behind overnight, he still had plenty of opportunities. Just one Williams break above 50 all afternoon told its own story, with Zhao clinically mopping up to extend his lead to 17-8.
They emerged for the evening session to a standing ovation and, visibly emotional as the voice of Tom Jones rang out around the Crucible, Williams was briefly inspired. He won four straight frames, including his first century of the final. It was stirring stuff, but still only delaying the inevitable and, at shortly after 8.30pm, Zhao nervelessly sealed his victory.
That equated to 3.30am in Beijing, with the match available to every household in China on CCTV5. Jason Ferguson, the chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, hailed a “magical, historic” moment for the sport.
There are already six ranking tournaments each year in Asia and, with 50 per cent of snooker’s global audience now hailing from China, Zhao’s success will also strengthen the argument of those who want the World Championship to move when the Crucible deal expires in 2027.
Asked about bringing the tournament to China, Zhao said: “Hopefully, but I think the Crucible is my lucky place.”
Snooker will never be quite the same again.
08:57 PM BST
WATCH: The winning moment for Zhao
The moment Zhao Xintong became a World Champion! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/GTUoJcbafO
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) May 5, 2025
08:50 PM BST
Zhao reacts
Nice touch by Irvine to start her chat with Zhao by speaking in Mandarin. He thanks the crowd and shows his respect to Williams.
I can’t believe what I’ve done. It’s very exciting. Thank you.
I was so nervous tonight. Mark is still a top player and put me under so much pressure. He’s the best.
I’m not tired. I’ll maybe have a good drink tonight.
08:41 PM BST
Zhao celebrates
A nice embrace between the two players. Someone from the crowd hands Zhao a Chinese flag and he holds it aloft before wrapping himself around it.
Williams shows his class and pays tribute to Zhao in his chat with Hazel Irvine.
It’s been a brilliant tournament for me. The support I’ve had for the past two weeks has been unbelievable.
But what a potter Zhao is. I’m glad I’ll be too old when he’s dominating the game. I’ve got nothing but admiration for what he’s done, coming through the qualifiers. He hasn’t played for two years, bashed everybody up. There’s a new superstar of the game.
08:37 PM BST
RESULT: Williams 12 Zhao 18
With the red balls nicely spread, Zhao should wrap up the championship in this visit.
And he gets it when he reaches a break of 49. All that’s left is for him to clean up the table. He will become the first champion from Asia.
Zhao is finishing with a flourish now. What a performance from the young man.
He misses the final black but it doesn’t matter. He is the 2025 world champion.
Frame 30 result (best of 35): Williams 8 Zhao 110
08:32 PM BST
Williams 12 Zhao 17
Williams gets to eight then misses a short red and the shake of the suggests he knows that might be his last shot of the tournament.
Frame 30 (best of 35): Williams 8 Zhao 23
08:30 PM BST
Williams 12 Zhao 17
We’re back underway after a short break and Zhao gets a bit of luck when he narrowly avoids potting the white ball. He then goes for an ambitious red into the corner but misses and spreads the reds.
Williams has a sighter with a long red but he misses and opens the door for Zhao to take charge. He gets to 23 but doesn’t connect with a cannon and is forced to take a long red, which he missed.
Williams back at the table.
Frame 30 (best of 35): Williams 0 Zhao 23
08:20 PM BST
Mid-session interval: Williams 12 Zhao 17
An example of the poise and touch that Williams has demonstrated in this final session:
Four frames in a row…
He couldn’t win six more, could he?#HaloWorldChampionshippic.twitter.com/5tXTbWowkF
— WST (@WeAreWST) May 5, 2025
08:15 PM BST
Mid-session interval: Williams 12 Zhao 17
Murmours of Steven Gerrard and Istanbul in the Crucible press room in reference to one of sport’s greatest ever comebacks as Mark Williams pulls back four frames with four wonderful breaks. He had some fortune in the fourth with a fluked red to start but a brilliant series of pots thereafter. Amid the excitement, it should be stressed that Williams is still 17-12 behind Zhao and requires another six in a row but the match will now go into the mid-session interval. It also means no refunds for the fans.
08:06 PM BST
Mid-session interval: Williams 12 Zhao 17
Brilliant from Williams.
The veteran’s shot success in this session is 96 per cent, a huge improvement on his figure of 80 per cent in the afternoon. He has begun to play like a man liberated, taking this frame with another stunning sequence of shots, resulting in a break of 73.
He used the blue to superb effect, staying alive with one long pot, and drawing a gasp from the crowd when a red touched both sides of the pocket before it went down. Williams’s positioning was repeatedly slightly off, but he kept recovering in style, not least with a double at the end so good that it even drew a smile from Zhao. “This has been better than most century breaks this week,” says Shaun Murphy.
Frame 29 result (best of 35): Williams 73 Zhao 0
07:54 PM BST
Williams 11 Zhao 17
Williams has won three frames in succession with three visits to the table. Should he make it four, the 50-year-old will manage the unlikely feat of making the mid-session interval (presumably saving the organisers a glut of refunds). “He is simply not missing,” Parrott says, noting that Zhao faces an intriguing tactical decision: should he stick with his shot-making or demonstrate uncharacteristic caution to get over the line?
Frame 29 (best of 35): Williams 17 Zhao 17
07:50 PM BST
Williams 11 Zhao 17
All of a sudden, Williams is playing with the elan that snooker fans have come to expect of him, winning another frame with a brilliant break of 96. The highlight was the break-assisted shot in which he stunned the red and got it to drift across to the black, a difficult skill and one required because the pink had been re-spotted in the brown’s position.
How will Zhao react to this mini revival from Williams? Well, he has shown no signs of emotional vulnerability so far in the final, but it is too soon to say for certain as Williams, simply, has not allowed his opponent to get among the balls since they restarted.
“They’re made of tough stuff, the class of ’92,” says an impressed John Virgo in commentary, referring to the crop of players who emerged 33 years ago to dominate the sport.
Frame 28 result (best of 35): Williams 96 Zhao 6
07:38 PM BST
Williams 10 Zhao 17
Zhao, typically, tries to pot his way out of trouble. The tactic works initially, with a superb red, but he misses next shot, leaving Williams with a chance to secure the frame. Showing great courage, the Welshman holds his nerve to close the gap again, recovering superbly from two poor, positional shots to leave Zhao needing two snookers – he chooses not to pursue them.
Frame 27 result (best of 35): Williams 62 Zhao 1
07:32 PM BST
Williams 9 Zhao 17
Perhaps Williams has found a second wind. He attacks the frame with a 37 break that features several superb shots, including a long red, a pot to the middle and an awkward, third shot with his the cue ball tight on the reds.
He is unlucky not to find a potential pot after a blue to the middle, despite having unsettled all eight reds on the table. But Williams’s subsequent safety is good, leaving Zhao in a tight spot with the cue ball touching the baulk cushion.
Frame 27 (best of 35): Williams 27 Zhao 17
07:25 PM BST
Williams 9 Zhao 17
Not for the first time today, Williams fails to find baulk with a safety shot and gifts Zhao an early opportunity in the frame. Still betraying no sign of nerves despite being so close to his first world title, the Chinese proceeds to build a 30-point lead.
However, Williams, surely playing now only to make the scoreline less damaging, then steps up after a Zhao miss to clear the table with a break of 101. Brilliant effort from the Welshman, composed and determined. Clearly, it is too soon to suggest he has shaken off his earlier torpor, but that was closer to the player who performed so impressively in the previous two rounds.
Frame 26 result (best of 35): Williams 101 Zhao 30
07:06 PM BST
Final session: Williams 8 Zhao 17
Though not quite at his best in the afternoon session, Zhao looked impressively composed and pulled off some superbly powerful pots, not least this effort in the final frame of the afternoon session.
Not many cue better than Zhao Xintong.#HaloWorldChampionshippic.twitter.com/vu0AXlnV91
— WST (@WeAreWST) May 5, 2025
07:02 PM BST
Final session: Williams 8 Zhao 17
The players are due back at the Crucible table shortly for the closing session of the tournament, with Zhao needing just one victory to triumph. The Chinese player, who is rebuilding his career after a ban, could become only the third qualifier to win the title since the championship moved to the Crucible in 1977. He would emulate Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Shaun Murphy 20 years ago.
06:48 PM BST
Williams calls for crowd sing-along
Though only one frame from defeat, Williams is refusing to be downhearted, encouraging fans to join a rendition of a Welsh anthem. “Last session to an amazing tournament,” he writes. “Amazing crowd. Let’s blast out and sing Delilah one last time.”
06:44 PM BST
Zhao is ‘best I’ve seen’, admits Williams
Zhao and Williams are due to return to the table in around 20 minutes, with the Welshman having reflected on difficult afternoon session on social media. Williams says Zhao is “probably the best potter” that he has ever seen.
Here is his Twitter posted, with typos cleaned up: “Oh well, that was tough, I’ve not got enough cue power to combat tough conditions like Zhao. His cue power is superb. Probably the best potter I have ever seen.
“Last session in a few hours. Support I have had this last two weeks has been amazing from the crowd and everyone.”
06:19 PM BST
Crucible fans in line for refund
Snooker fans who have tickets for tonight’s final will receive a 50 per cent refund if fewer than four frames are required. It seems very likely, with Zhao Xintong going into the final session leading Mark Williams 17-8 and requiring just one frame to become China’s first world champion. On Saturday, ticket-holders were not universally delighted to be served up an exhibition rerun of the 1985 final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor (rather than a refund) in the void that Zhao had left in beating Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-7.
05:08 PM BST
Zhao cruise could lead to fans refund
World Snooker are considering their response to a possible short session of only one or two frames this evening after some fans were unhappy on Saturday at an exhibition match between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor, rather than any option of a refund when Zhao’s semi-final finished early. It would seem that a part-refund would be a possibility this time, although it will all obviously depend on the extent to which Mark Williams can mount a comeback.
03:48 PM BST
End of session: Williams 8 Zhao 17
The final frame of the afternoon session has pretty much summed up the rest, with Zhao Xintong mopping up after mistakes by Mark Williams. He is being put under minimal pressure in his march to a first world title. Williams was magnificent in beating John Higgins and Judd Trump but has simply run out of steam, as had Ronnie O’Sullivan against Zhao in the semi-final. The 17-day Crucible marathon is supposed to get more difficult as it goes on but the opposite has in fact been the case for Zhao.
03:44 PM BST
End of session: Williams 8 Zhao 17
The players will return for the final session at 7pm BST.
03:42 PM BST
Williams 8 Zhao 17
Trailing by 21 points, Williams rolls back the years with a superb red to the middle, following it up with a delicately cut brown. With at least three reds available, he cannot quite close the points gap, missing a pot with the frame at his mercy.
Zhao capitalises on the slip to pot the remaining two reds and clear to blue, leaving him needing just one frame this evening to win the world title. That is the end of the session.
Frame 25 result (best of 35): Williams 36 Zhao 63
03:29 PM BST
Williams 8 Zhao 16
A cagey frame so far, with the players exchanging well-judged safety shots and the reds bunched.
If Zhao goes on to win this evening, it will be the ninth victory of his world championship campaign:
What an incredible run from Zhao Xintong at the World Snooker Championship 👏 pic.twitter.com/aOSEj3sTBv
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 2, 2025
Frame 25 (best of 35): Williams 0 Zhao 26
03:18 PM BST
Williams 8 Zhao 16
For the second frame in succession, Zhao fails with a hugely ambitious red, the kind that a player would surely only take on if they felt victory was assured.
If such complacency risks offending Williams, however, the Welshman is lacking the wherewithal to duly punish his opponent and misses an elementary red, having shown glimpses of his best in a mini break of 26.
Zhao steps with a fluent break of 67, finishing with a cheeky, one-handed miss on the pink, to take the frame.
Frame 24 result (best of 35): Williams 26 Zhao 79
03:04 PM BST
Williams 8 Zhao 15
For all Zhao’s composure, he has not quite touched the heights of his previous matches in the tournament, achieving a relatively conservative 88 per cent pot percentage in this session. Williams’s equivalent figure, however, is 80 per cent, and it scarcely reflects the disparity in the players’ performance.
The crowd clearly crave a closer contest and loudly applaud a long, ambitious pot from Williams at the outset of this frame and later encourage him to take advantage of a Zhao miss.
Williams, to his credit, responds impressively, producing a solid 66 break to keep Zhao in his seat and prompt further cheers from the crowd. As well as ensuring a third session, the effort should, hopefully, help Williams’s confidence.
Frame 23 result (best of 35): Williams 84 Zhao 14
02:57 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 15
A win with a session to spare would also throw up problems from World Snooker. Ticket-holders were not universally delighted to be served up an exhibition re-run of the 1985 final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor on Saturday (rather than a refund) in the void that Zhao had left in beating Ronnie O’Sulliban with similar ease.
Frame 23 (best of 35): Williams 18 Zhao 10
02:47 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 15
Williams misjudges another crucial shot, getting a double kiss on the red, which leaves Zhao with the opportunity to secure the frame. He seizes the opportunity with a swift 52 break.
With three frames left in this session, Zhao could easily win the tournament with a session to spare.
Frame 22 result (best of 35): Williams 1 Zhao 104
02:44 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 14
Williams, having already struggled for rhythm, appears to be trying to force his game and misses a straightforward black just when Zhao had given him an unexpected chance at 41-1 ahead.
The Chinese, who had earlier fluked a green, gets another huge stroke of luck when a blue goes into the unintended pocket. He fails to break up the bunched reds having sunk the green, leaving him 51 ahead with 59 on the table.
Frame 22 (best of 35): Williams 1 Zhao 52
02:29 PM BST
Mid-session interval: Williams 7 Zhao 14
Feels now like only a question of when rather than if for Zhao Xintong and the prospect of snooker’s first Chinese world champion. He would have to win the four remaining frames this afternoon to win with a session to spare – something achieved previously by Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry – but more likely is an early finish tonight. Hendry did come back from 14-8 down to beat Jimmy White in 1992 but, at 14-7 now and with Mark Williams struggling, this would require something even more extraordinary. Zhao also looks fearless and so far lacking any of the nerves that can accompany getting over the line on snooker’s biggest stage.
02:18 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 14
Williams seems to be fading, following up a loose safety with what Davis describes as a “total miss-hit”. Even when Zhao responds with his first clear misjudgment of the session, hitting a poor positional shot, Williams fails to take advantage and leaves Zhao with an inviting, long red.
He grants Williams another opportunity, leaving a red over the pocket, but Williams, requiring swerve, pockets the cue ball. Zhao, apparently unperturbed by his couple of mistakes, clears the table to take his third frame of the session.
Zhao goes into the break having widened his lead and looking mostly unflappable. The match is rapidly slipping beyond Williams’s grasp. “Mark looks like he’s deflated,” Doherty says. “He needs something to get himself going. He’s playing nowhere near the standards against John Higgins and Judd Trump.”
Frame 20 result (best of 35): Williams 45 Zhao 85
02:06 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 13
It has to be said that Zhao Xintong has not run into Ronnie O’Sullivan or Mark Williams in anything like their best form but some of his single-ball potting is breathtaking and there is no real sign of nerves. That fabulous long red which effectively clinched the 20th frame prompted gasps inside the Crucible.
Frame 20 (best of 35): Williams 45 Zhao 0
01:59 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 13
Williams concedes the frame after fouling the black on his return to the table.
Frame 20 result (best of 35): Williams 7 Zhao 65
01:57 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 12
To what extent will Williams’s age prove a factor on this final day? The Welshman performed superbly to defeat John Higgins and world No 1 Judd Trump in previous rounds but Parrott, for one, believes he is betraying signs of running low on fuel. “He’s 50, after all,” the BBC pundit and former world champion says.
Whatever the truth, Williams is not playing with any particular caution, letting in Zhao with an aggressive safety shot. The Chinese then cruises to an elegant 58 break, using mostly the blue with the black out of commission.
The game ball is the most impressive, a long red that leaves Williams needing two snookers to tie. Steve Davis, the six-time world champion, is suitable impressed in the commentary box. “What a great break. Floating around the table, relaxed, smooth cueing. What a hurtful frame for Mark Williams.”
Frame 20 (best of 35): Williams 7 Zhao 58
01:44 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 12
Finally, Williams settles into his first break of the session, of 35, featuring a superb red with the cue ball tight on the cushion.
A loose safety from Zhao then lets in the Welshman to pot a long red that effectively wins him the frame, Zhao choosing not to chase the snooker needed.
Frame 19 result (best of 35): Williams 66 Zhao 18
01:39 PM BST
Williams 6 Zhao 12
Scrappier start to the second frame in which the players trade safety shots, an exchange that ends with Williams taking on a difficult, long red only not even to get close to potting it.
Zhao, however, in his first mistake of the session, squanders a straightforward opportunity to pot a red in a middle pocket. The mistake lets in Williams to sink a long pot and then snooker his opponent behind the brown.
Zhao fouls yet still Williams cannot take advantage, instead missing an easy pink, prompting him to wave a palm in disgust. “He was already walking around to the next shot,” says Parrott on commentary.
Frame 19 (best of 35): Williams 27 Zhao 18
01:25 PM BST
Williams 6 Zhao 12
Williams, having picked off a difficult red from the pack and potted a difficult green using the rest, then misses a straightforward blue by some distance.
Zhao takes advantage of the slip with a confident break that ends with a red delicately cut into the corner pocket followed by a neat shot on the green, putting the frame beyond his opponent.
A hugely impressive start from Zhao. As former world champion Ken Doherty says for the BBC TV coverage: “No fear, no trepidation, cueing beautifully.” His colleague John Parrott, describing Zhao’s elusiveness around the table, adds pithily: “He would make a very good ghost.”
Frame 18 result (best of 35): Williams 5 Zhao 76
01:15 PM BST
Williams 6 Zhao 11
Zhao pots an excellent long red with his first visit to the table, capitalising on a fairly loose break from Williams. He then puts away a tricky black and, using the rest, pots the final available to open with a break of 46. The qualifier has started without a glimmer of nerves.
Frame 18 (best of 35): Williams 0 Zhao 46
01:09 PM BST
Williams needs to buck history
No one has overcome an overnight five-frame deficit in the world championship final, but Williams was trailing by four before he went on to win the tournament for the first time, a full 25 years ago.
Mark Williams was 10-6 down when he won his first World Championship title back in 2000….
….he is not a man to be discounted. pic.twitter.com/hhr55f7h6G
— WST (@WeAreWST) May 5, 2025
01:04 PM BST
When teenage Zhao shocked Williams
Williams was given a very early taste of Zhao’s prodigious talent when the pair played one another around 15 years ago.
The first time they met 🤩
An exhibition we organised for Mark in China. Xintong won 2-1 making a century break🔥🔥🔥
Zhao Xintong was 13 pic.twitter.com/lgFKf5FnHs
— Vic Snooker Academy (@Vics_Snooker) May 4, 2025
01:01 PM BST
Zhao could give Chinese game huge boost
Zhao would also move straight back into the world’s top 12 should he win the £500,000 first prize. The knock-on impact for snooker in China, where there are already 300,000 clubs, would be seismic. “I think he has the potential to become the biggest star in the sport,” said Jason Ferguson, the chair of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. “Certainly the earning opportunities for someone like him are immense. It’s a huge nation. We are operating in cities almost 50 per cent the size of the UK. He would go back as a national hero and would be incredible for the sport.”
12:58 PM BST
Zhao bounces back from scandal
As Jeremy Wilson writes, Zhao’s ban means he has returned to the sport under something of a cloud, albeit having received the shortest suspension of those that were ultimately handed down to 10 Chinese players.
The specifics of the charges against Zhao were that he was “a party to an effort to fix or contrive the result or score” of two matches involving his friend Yan Bingtao – the 2021 Masters champion – in March 2022. Zhao also admitted betting on multiple matches between September 2019 and December 31, 2022.
The investigation commission found, however, that Zhao was the only player among the respondents who “did not himself fix any match” and that his involvement was limited to placing bets for Yan through another player. The commission also found that Xintong had shown “genuine remorse for his actions” and admitted the charges at the earliest opportunity. He returned last September and has since been in outstanding form, winning four qualifying matches even to make the Crucible.
12:54 PM BST
Williams revival offers hope
Williams will be hoping to carry over his form from the climax of Sunday’s play.
Zhao Xintong ends the opening session of the World Snooker Championship final with a commanding lead of 7-1 against Mark Williams! 👏#WorldChampionshippic.twitter.com/ikEEVqI2wd
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) May 4, 2025
12:49 PM BST
Williams also aiming to set record
Jeremy Wilson is The Telegraph’s man at the Crucible. Jeremy writes: “Williams has won titanic victories in recent days against John Higgins and then World No 1 Judd Trump and, aged 50, is aiming to become the oldest ever world champion after already setting a new record for the oldest finalist.” Read Jeremy’s report on Sunday’s play.
12:26 PM BST
History beckons Zhao Xintong at Crucible
Chinese qualifier Zhao Xintong takes an imposing 11-6 lead over Welshman Mark Williams into the final of the World Snooker Championship final at the Crucible Theatre today.
Zhao, who is hoping to become China’s first world champion, raced to an early 7-1 advantage in the best-of-35-frame contest but Williams staged a mini revival in the second session to keep alive his hopes of a fourth title.
The two players will play to a conclusion today with the afternoon session starting at 1pm. Zhao leads 11-6, with the final a race to 17 frames. If required, the two players will return after their eight afternoon frames to finish the match from 7pm.
Williams, 50, was not at his best in the opening session and he failed to convert his best break of 61 in the sixth frame.
His 28-year-old opponent took full advantage but Williams hit back in the second session by winning five of the nine frames.
Williams still faces a huge task to deny Zhao the title on Monday with no player having overcome such a large overnight deficit since the tournament moved to the Crucible in 1977.
Zhao, who was banned for 20 months in January 2023 after a match-fixing investigation that rocked the sport, will bank a cheque for £500,000.
One strange subplot is that the veteran Williams is in two minds about whether or not to have lens replacement surgery in the coming months.
Williams said: “I have been reading up and talking to people who have had it done and I’ve got to be honest, it is putting me off a bit.
“I’ve got a big decision to make. A couple of people I have spoken to, especially Anthony Hamilton at length, have said it is no good under the lights and it has ruined his career.
“It has sort of put me under pressure. After this is finished, it is something I am going to have to look more into.”
Does snooker have its Luke Littler moment? Perhaps not on these shores – that came when Alex Higgins emerged like a hurricane in the Seventies – but, at a global level, this promises to be equally seismic.
Zhao Xintong, a player nicknamed the Cyclone, has become China’s first world champion, in front of a television audience in his homeland of more than 100 million. After completing his winning break, Zhao draped himself in the red and gold China flag for a hugely symbolic moment in snooker history that has been promised ever since Barry Hearn had the vision to take Steve Davis and his stable of players to the Far East some 40 years ago.
After dismantling Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-7 with a full session to spare in the semi-final, Zhao dispatched a second all-time snooker great on the Crucible stage, surviving a late Mark Williams rally to still comfortably prevail 18-12.
There had only previously been five winners from outside the United Kingdom since the first World Snooker Championship 98 years ago, but Zhao is the first from Asia, a continent where the sport has steadily flourished since being admitted into the Asian Games and World Games at the turn of the century.
‘He’s as good to watch as O’Sullivan’
Ding Junhui was the original trailblazer, reaching the final in 2016, but Zhao has long since been identified by his snooker peers as the player who might actually dominate. O’Sullivan calls him the “Roger Federer of snooker” for his style of play around the baize. Zhao first met Williams when he was only 13, beating him in an exhibition in China with a century break.
“He’s probably the best potter I have ever seen,” Williams said following his defeat. “There’s a new superstar of the game. He bashed me up, he bashed Ronnie up, he bashed everyone up. It’s frightening to watch. He’s as good to watch as O’Sullivan when he was younger. He strolls around the table like he’s walking to the toilet, to the park, or something. He’ll be a national hero. It could open up floodgates everywhere. Darts has Luke Littler. Snooker needed something like this.”
It was a gracious response, but this is still no unblemished fairy tale. You may have heard that the 28-year-old Zhao is also the first amateur and third qualifier to become world champion, despite winning the UK Championship in 2021 and being ranked sixth in the world by the end of the 2021-22 season. It should have been the launchpad for his career but his snooker world came crashing down within a year. Zhao was provisionally suspended in January 2023 and ultimately banned for 20 months following snooker’s biggest match-fixing investigation.
He was one of 10 Chinese players suspended but received the shortest ban after it was found that he had not himself thrown matches but placed two bets for his friend Yan Bingtao through another Chinese player. Zhao also quickly admitted the offences and his contrition has seemed genuine. “Living alone overseas was boring, in a closed life, and I stupidly chose betting to [pass] some time – I did not realise that betting influenced me like a monster,” he said upon his return. “I paid a big price for my stupidity and spent every day in remorse. You cherish what you lose. No words can describe my love for snooker. Let me prove it to you with better results.”
He has certainly achieved that, returning to Q Tour as an amateur last September, where he won four events before amassing 12 century breaks in four qualifying matches just to reach the Crucible. It meant that his own World Championship journey actually started at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield on April 7.
“I can’t believe what I’ve done this month,” he said. “I’m not tired. I had a dream. I’m not sure it is true. It’s unbelievable. I played two of my idols. When I shook hands with Mark, I nearly cried.”
Asked about his ban, he said: “I just want to keep going.”
Although there are 300,000 snooker clubs in China, Zhao now bases himself at Victoria’s Snooker Academy in Sheffield, which is a 10-minute walk from the Crucible, and he will be among five Chinese players ranked in the world’s top 16 next season.
Just as against O’Sullivan on Thursday and Friday, it should be stressed that Zhao was rather helped here by the unexpected flurry of unforced errors from his opponent. The main damage was done when Williams lost Sunday’s opening session 7-1 but, after resuming 11-6 behind overnight, he still had plenty of opportunities. Just one Williams break above 50 all afternoon told its own story, with Zhao clinically mopping up to extend his lead to 17-8.
They emerged for the evening session to a standing ovation and, visibly emotional as the voice of Tom Jones rang out around the Crucible, Williams was briefly inspired. He won four straight frames, including his first century of the final. It was stirring stuff, but still only delaying the inevitable and, at shortly after 8.30pm, Zhao nervelessly sealed his victory.
That equated to 3.30am in Beijing, with the match available to every household in China on CCTV5. Jason Ferguson, the chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, hailed a “magical, historic” moment for the sport.
There are already six ranking tournaments each year in Asia and, with 50 per cent of snooker’s global audience now hailing from China, Zhao’s success will also strengthen the argument of those who want the World Championship to move when the Crucible deal expires in 2027.
Asked about bringing the tournament to China, Zhao said: “Hopefully, but I think the Crucible is my lucky place.”
Snooker will never be quite the same again.
08:57 PM BST
WATCH: The winning moment for Zhao
The moment Zhao Xintong became a World Champion! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/GTUoJcbafO
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) May 5, 2025
08:50 PM BST
Zhao reacts
Nice touch by Irvine to start her chat with Zhao by speaking in Mandarin. He thanks the crowd and shows his respect to Williams.
I can’t believe what I’ve done. It’s very exciting. Thank you.
I was so nervous tonight. Mark is still a top player and put me under so much pressure. He’s the best.
I’m not tired. I’ll maybe have a good drink tonight.
08:41 PM BST
Zhao celebrates
A nice embrace between the two players. Someone from the crowd hands Zhao a Chinese flag and he holds it aloft before wrapping himself around it.
Williams shows his class and pays tribute to Zhao in his chat with Hazel Irvine.
It’s been a brilliant tournament for me. The support I’ve had for the past two weeks has been unbelievable.
But what a potter Zhao is. I’m glad I’ll be too old when he’s dominating the game. I’ve got nothing but admiration for what he’s done, coming through the qualifiers. He hasn’t played for two years, bashed everybody up. There’s a new superstar of the game.
08:37 PM BST
RESULT: Williams 12 Zhao 18
With the red balls nicely spread, Zhao should wrap up the championship in this visit.
And he gets it when he reaches a break of 49. All that’s left is for him to clean up the table. He will become the first champion from Asia.
Zhao is finishing with a flourish now. What a performance from the young man.
He misses the final black but it doesn’t matter. He is the 2025 world champion.
Frame 30 result (best of 35): Williams 8 Zhao 110
08:32 PM BST
Williams 12 Zhao 17
Williams gets to eight then misses a short red and the shake of the suggests he knows that might be his last shot of the tournament.
Frame 30 (best of 35): Williams 8 Zhao 23
08:30 PM BST
Williams 12 Zhao 17
We’re back underway after a short break and Zhao gets a bit of luck when he narrowly avoids potting the white ball. He then goes for an ambitious red into the corner but misses and spreads the reds.
Williams has a sighter with a long red but he misses and opens the door for Zhao to take charge. He gets to 23 but doesn’t connect with a cannon and is forced to take a long red, which he missed.
Williams back at the table.
Frame 30 (best of 35): Williams 0 Zhao 23
08:20 PM BST
Mid-session interval: Williams 12 Zhao 17
An example of the poise and touch that Williams has demonstrated in this final session:
Four frames in a row…
He couldn’t win six more, could he?#HaloWorldChampionshippic.twitter.com/5tXTbWowkF
— WST (@WeAreWST) May 5, 2025
08:15 PM BST
Mid-session interval: Williams 12 Zhao 17
Murmours of Steven Gerrard and Istanbul in the Crucible press room in reference to one of sport’s greatest ever comebacks as Mark Williams pulls back four frames with four wonderful breaks. He had some fortune in the fourth with a fluked red to start but a brilliant series of pots thereafter. Amid the excitement, it should be stressed that Williams is still 17-12 behind Zhao and requires another six in a row but the match will now go into the mid-session interval. It also means no refunds for the fans.
08:06 PM BST
Mid-session interval: Williams 12 Zhao 17
Brilliant from Williams.
The veteran’s shot success in this session is 96 per cent, a huge improvement on his figure of 80 per cent in the afternoon. He has begun to play like a man liberated, taking this frame with another stunning sequence of shots, resulting in a break of 73.
He used the blue to superb effect, staying alive with one long pot, and drawing a gasp from the crowd when a red touched both sides of the pocket before it went down. Williams’s positioning was repeatedly slightly off, but he kept recovering in style, not least with a double at the end so good that it even drew a smile from Zhao. “This has been better than most century breaks this week,” says Shaun Murphy.
Frame 29 result (best of 35): Williams 73 Zhao 0
07:54 PM BST
Williams 11 Zhao 17
Williams has won three frames in succession with three visits to the table. Should he make it four, the 50-year-old will manage the unlikely feat of making the mid-session interval (presumably saving the organisers a glut of refunds). “He is simply not missing,” Parrott says, noting that Zhao faces an intriguing tactical decision: should he stick with his shot-making or demonstrate uncharacteristic caution to get over the line?
Frame 29 (best of 35): Williams 17 Zhao 17
07:50 PM BST
Williams 11 Zhao 17
All of a sudden, Williams is playing with the elan that snooker fans have come to expect of him, winning another frame with a brilliant break of 96. The highlight was the break-assisted shot in which he stunned the red and got it to drift across to the black, a difficult skill and one required because the pink had been re-spotted in the brown’s position.
How will Zhao react to this mini revival from Williams? Well, he has shown no signs of emotional vulnerability so far in the final, but it is too soon to say for certain as Williams, simply, has not allowed his opponent to get among the balls since they restarted.
“They’re made of tough stuff, the class of ’92,” says an impressed John Virgo in commentary, referring to the crop of players who emerged 33 years ago to dominate the sport.
Frame 28 result (best of 35): Williams 96 Zhao 6
07:38 PM BST
Williams 10 Zhao 17
Zhao, typically, tries to pot his way out of trouble. The tactic works initially, with a superb red, but he misses next shot, leaving Williams with a chance to secure the frame. Showing great courage, the Welshman holds his nerve to close the gap again, recovering superbly from two poor, positional shots to leave Zhao needing two snookers – he chooses not to pursue them.
Frame 27 result (best of 35): Williams 62 Zhao 1
07:32 PM BST
Williams 9 Zhao 17
Perhaps Williams has found a second wind. He attacks the frame with a 37 break that features several superb shots, including a long red, a pot to the middle and an awkward, third shot with his the cue ball tight on the reds.
He is unlucky not to find a potential pot after a blue to the middle, despite having unsettled all eight reds on the table. But Williams’s subsequent safety is good, leaving Zhao in a tight spot with the cue ball touching the baulk cushion.
Frame 27 (best of 35): Williams 27 Zhao 17
07:25 PM BST
Williams 9 Zhao 17
Not for the first time today, Williams fails to find baulk with a safety shot and gifts Zhao an early opportunity in the frame. Still betraying no sign of nerves despite being so close to his first world title, the Chinese proceeds to build a 30-point lead.
However, Williams, surely playing now only to make the scoreline less damaging, then steps up after a Zhao miss to clear the table with a break of 101. Brilliant effort from the Welshman, composed and determined. Clearly, it is too soon to suggest he has shaken off his earlier torpor, but that was closer to the player who performed so impressively in the previous two rounds.
Frame 26 result (best of 35): Williams 101 Zhao 30
07:06 PM BST
Final session: Williams 8 Zhao 17
Though not quite at his best in the afternoon session, Zhao looked impressively composed and pulled off some superbly powerful pots, not least this effort in the final frame of the afternoon session.
Not many cue better than Zhao Xintong.#HaloWorldChampionshippic.twitter.com/vu0AXlnV91
— WST (@WeAreWST) May 5, 2025
07:02 PM BST
Final session: Williams 8 Zhao 17
The players are due back at the Crucible table shortly for the closing session of the tournament, with Zhao needing just one victory to triumph. The Chinese player, who is rebuilding his career after a ban, could become only the third qualifier to win the title since the championship moved to the Crucible in 1977. He would emulate Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Shaun Murphy 20 years ago.
06:48 PM BST
Williams calls for crowd sing-along
Though only one frame from defeat, Williams is refusing to be downhearted, encouraging fans to join a rendition of a Welsh anthem. “Last session to an amazing tournament,” he writes. “Amazing crowd. Let’s blast out and sing Delilah one last time.”
06:44 PM BST
Zhao is ‘best I’ve seen’, admits Williams
Zhao and Williams are due to return to the table in around 20 minutes, with the Welshman having reflected on difficult afternoon session on social media. Williams says Zhao is “probably the best potter” that he has ever seen.
Here is his Twitter posted, with typos cleaned up: “Oh well, that was tough, I’ve not got enough cue power to combat tough conditions like Zhao. His cue power is superb. Probably the best potter I have ever seen.
“Last session in a few hours. Support I have had this last two weeks has been amazing from the crowd and everyone.”
06:19 PM BST
Crucible fans in line for refund
Snooker fans who have tickets for tonight’s final will receive a 50 per cent refund if fewer than four frames are required. It seems very likely, with Zhao Xintong going into the final session leading Mark Williams 17-8 and requiring just one frame to become China’s first world champion. On Saturday, ticket-holders were not universally delighted to be served up an exhibition rerun of the 1985 final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor (rather than a refund) in the void that Zhao had left in beating Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-7.
05:08 PM BST
Zhao cruise could lead to fans refund
World Snooker are considering their response to a possible short session of only one or two frames this evening after some fans were unhappy on Saturday at an exhibition match between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor, rather than any option of a refund when Zhao’s semi-final finished early. It would seem that a part-refund would be a possibility this time, although it will all obviously depend on the extent to which Mark Williams can mount a comeback.
03:48 PM BST
End of session: Williams 8 Zhao 17
The final frame of the afternoon session has pretty much summed up the rest, with Zhao Xintong mopping up after mistakes by Mark Williams. He is being put under minimal pressure in his march to a first world title. Williams was magnificent in beating John Higgins and Judd Trump but has simply run out of steam, as had Ronnie O’Sullivan against Zhao in the semi-final. The 17-day Crucible marathon is supposed to get more difficult as it goes on but the opposite has in fact been the case for Zhao.
03:44 PM BST
End of session: Williams 8 Zhao 17
The players will return for the final session at 7pm BST.
03:42 PM BST
Williams 8 Zhao 17
Trailing by 21 points, Williams rolls back the years with a superb red to the middle, following it up with a delicately cut brown. With at least three reds available, he cannot quite close the points gap, missing a pot with the frame at his mercy.
Zhao capitalises on the slip to pot the remaining two reds and clear to blue, leaving him needing just one frame this evening to win the world title. That is the end of the session.
Frame 25 result (best of 35): Williams 36 Zhao 63
03:29 PM BST
Williams 8 Zhao 16
A cagey frame so far, with the players exchanging well-judged safety shots and the reds bunched.
If Zhao goes on to win this evening, it will be the ninth victory of his world championship campaign:
What an incredible run from Zhao Xintong at the World Snooker Championship 👏 pic.twitter.com/aOSEj3sTBv
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 2, 2025
Frame 25 (best of 35): Williams 0 Zhao 26
03:18 PM BST
Williams 8 Zhao 16
For the second frame in succession, Zhao fails with a hugely ambitious red, the kind that a player would surely only take on if they felt victory was assured.
If such complacency risks offending Williams, however, the Welshman is lacking the wherewithal to duly punish his opponent and misses an elementary red, having shown glimpses of his best in a mini break of 26.
Zhao steps with a fluent break of 67, finishing with a cheeky, one-handed miss on the pink, to take the frame.
Frame 24 result (best of 35): Williams 26 Zhao 79
03:04 PM BST
Williams 8 Zhao 15
For all Zhao’s composure, he has not quite touched the heights of his previous matches in the tournament, achieving a relatively conservative 88 per cent pot percentage in this session. Williams’s equivalent figure, however, is 80 per cent, and it scarcely reflects the disparity in the players’ performance.
The crowd clearly crave a closer contest and loudly applaud a long, ambitious pot from Williams at the outset of this frame and later encourage him to take advantage of a Zhao miss.
Williams, to his credit, responds impressively, producing a solid 66 break to keep Zhao in his seat and prompt further cheers from the crowd. As well as ensuring a third session, the effort should, hopefully, help Williams’s confidence.
Frame 23 result (best of 35): Williams 84 Zhao 14
02:57 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 15
A win with a session to spare would also throw up problems from World Snooker. Ticket-holders were not universally delighted to be served up an exhibition re-run of the 1985 final between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor on Saturday (rather than a refund) in the void that Zhao had left in beating Ronnie O’Sulliban with similar ease.
Frame 23 (best of 35): Williams 18 Zhao 10
02:47 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 15
Williams misjudges another crucial shot, getting a double kiss on the red, which leaves Zhao with the opportunity to secure the frame. He seizes the opportunity with a swift 52 break.
With three frames left in this session, Zhao could easily win the tournament with a session to spare.
Frame 22 result (best of 35): Williams 1 Zhao 104
02:44 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 14
Williams, having already struggled for rhythm, appears to be trying to force his game and misses a straightforward black just when Zhao had given him an unexpected chance at 41-1 ahead.
The Chinese, who had earlier fluked a green, gets another huge stroke of luck when a blue goes into the unintended pocket. He fails to break up the bunched reds having sunk the green, leaving him 51 ahead with 59 on the table.
Frame 22 (best of 35): Williams 1 Zhao 52
02:29 PM BST
Mid-session interval: Williams 7 Zhao 14
Feels now like only a question of when rather than if for Zhao Xintong and the prospect of snooker’s first Chinese world champion. He would have to win the four remaining frames this afternoon to win with a session to spare – something achieved previously by Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry – but more likely is an early finish tonight. Hendry did come back from 14-8 down to beat Jimmy White in 1992 but, at 14-7 now and with Mark Williams struggling, this would require something even more extraordinary. Zhao also looks fearless and so far lacking any of the nerves that can accompany getting over the line on snooker’s biggest stage.
02:18 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 14
Williams seems to be fading, following up a loose safety with what Davis describes as a “total miss-hit”. Even when Zhao responds with his first clear misjudgment of the session, hitting a poor positional shot, Williams fails to take advantage and leaves Zhao with an inviting, long red.
He grants Williams another opportunity, leaving a red over the pocket, but Williams, requiring swerve, pockets the cue ball. Zhao, apparently unperturbed by his couple of mistakes, clears the table to take his third frame of the session.
Zhao goes into the break having widened his lead and looking mostly unflappable. The match is rapidly slipping beyond Williams’s grasp. “Mark looks like he’s deflated,” Doherty says. “He needs something to get himself going. He’s playing nowhere near the standards against John Higgins and Judd Trump.”
Frame 20 result (best of 35): Williams 45 Zhao 85
02:06 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 13
It has to be said that Zhao Xintong has not run into Ronnie O’Sullivan or Mark Williams in anything like their best form but some of his single-ball potting is breathtaking and there is no real sign of nerves. That fabulous long red which effectively clinched the 20th frame prompted gasps inside the Crucible.
Frame 20 (best of 35): Williams 45 Zhao 0
01:59 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 13
Williams concedes the frame after fouling the black on his return to the table.
Frame 20 result (best of 35): Williams 7 Zhao 65
01:57 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 12
To what extent will Williams’s age prove a factor on this final day? The Welshman performed superbly to defeat John Higgins and world No 1 Judd Trump in previous rounds but Parrott, for one, believes he is betraying signs of running low on fuel. “He’s 50, after all,” the BBC pundit and former world champion says.
Whatever the truth, Williams is not playing with any particular caution, letting in Zhao with an aggressive safety shot. The Chinese then cruises to an elegant 58 break, using mostly the blue with the black out of commission.
The game ball is the most impressive, a long red that leaves Williams needing two snookers to tie. Steve Davis, the six-time world champion, is suitable impressed in the commentary box. “What a great break. Floating around the table, relaxed, smooth cueing. What a hurtful frame for Mark Williams.”
Frame 20 (best of 35): Williams 7 Zhao 58
01:44 PM BST
Williams 7 Zhao 12
Finally, Williams settles into his first break of the session, of 35, featuring a superb red with the cue ball tight on the cushion.
A loose safety from Zhao then lets in the Welshman to pot a long red that effectively wins him the frame, Zhao choosing not to chase the snooker needed.
Frame 19 result (best of 35): Williams 66 Zhao 18
01:39 PM BST
Williams 6 Zhao 12
Scrappier start to the second frame in which the players trade safety shots, an exchange that ends with Williams taking on a difficult, long red only not even to get close to potting it.
Zhao, however, in his first mistake of the session, squanders a straightforward opportunity to pot a red in a middle pocket. The mistake lets in Williams to sink a long pot and then snooker his opponent behind the brown.
Zhao fouls yet still Williams cannot take advantage, instead missing an easy pink, prompting him to wave a palm in disgust. “He was already walking around to the next shot,” says Parrott on commentary.
Frame 19 (best of 35): Williams 27 Zhao 18
01:25 PM BST
Williams 6 Zhao 12
Williams, having picked off a difficult red from the pack and potted a difficult green using the rest, then misses a straightforward blue by some distance.
Zhao takes advantage of the slip with a confident break that ends with a red delicately cut into the corner pocket followed by a neat shot on the green, putting the frame beyond his opponent.
A hugely impressive start from Zhao. As former world champion Ken Doherty says for the BBC TV coverage: “No fear, no trepidation, cueing beautifully.” His colleague John Parrott, describing Zhao’s elusiveness around the table, adds pithily: “He would make a very good ghost.”
Frame 18 result (best of 35): Williams 5 Zhao 76
01:15 PM BST
Williams 6 Zhao 11
Zhao pots an excellent long red with his first visit to the table, capitalising on a fairly loose break from Williams. He then puts away a tricky black and, using the rest, pots the final available to open with a break of 46. The qualifier has started without a glimmer of nerves.
Frame 18 (best of 35): Williams 0 Zhao 46
01:09 PM BST
Williams needs to buck history
No one has overcome an overnight five-frame deficit in the world championship final, but Williams was trailing by four before he went on to win the tournament for the first time, a full 25 years ago.
Mark Williams was 10-6 down when he won his first World Championship title back in 2000….
….he is not a man to be discounted. pic.twitter.com/hhr55f7h6G
— WST (@WeAreWST) May 5, 2025
01:04 PM BST
When teenage Zhao shocked Williams
Williams was given a very early taste of Zhao’s prodigious talent when the pair played one another around 15 years ago.
The first time they met 🤩
An exhibition we organised for Mark in China. Xintong won 2-1 making a century break🔥🔥🔥
Zhao Xintong was 13 pic.twitter.com/lgFKf5FnHs
— Vic Snooker Academy (@Vics_Snooker) May 4, 2025
01:01 PM BST
Zhao could give Chinese game huge boost
Zhao would also move straight back into the world’s top 12 should he win the £500,000 first prize. The knock-on impact for snooker in China, where there are already 300,000 clubs, would be seismic. “I think he has the potential to become the biggest star in the sport,” said Jason Ferguson, the chair of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. “Certainly the earning opportunities for someone like him are immense. It’s a huge nation. We are operating in cities almost 50 per cent the size of the UK. He would go back as a national hero and would be incredible for the sport.”
12:58 PM BST
Zhao bounces back from scandal
As Jeremy Wilson writes, Zhao’s ban means he has returned to the sport under something of a cloud, albeit having received the shortest suspension of those that were ultimately handed down to 10 Chinese players.
The specifics of the charges against Zhao were that he was “a party to an effort to fix or contrive the result or score” of two matches involving his friend Yan Bingtao – the 2021 Masters champion – in March 2022. Zhao also admitted betting on multiple matches between September 2019 and December 31, 2022.
The investigation commission found, however, that Zhao was the only player among the respondents who “did not himself fix any match” and that his involvement was limited to placing bets for Yan through another player. The commission also found that Xintong had shown “genuine remorse for his actions” and admitted the charges at the earliest opportunity. He returned last September and has since been in outstanding form, winning four qualifying matches even to make the Crucible.
12:54 PM BST
Williams revival offers hope
Williams will be hoping to carry over his form from the climax of Sunday’s play.
Zhao Xintong ends the opening session of the World Snooker Championship final with a commanding lead of 7-1 against Mark Williams! 👏#WorldChampionshippic.twitter.com/ikEEVqI2wd
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) May 4, 2025
12:49 PM BST
Williams also aiming to set record
Jeremy Wilson is The Telegraph’s man at the Crucible. Jeremy writes: “Williams has won titanic victories in recent days against John Higgins and then World No 1 Judd Trump and, aged 50, is aiming to become the oldest ever world champion after already setting a new record for the oldest finalist.” Read Jeremy’s report on Sunday’s play.
12:26 PM BST
History beckons Zhao Xintong at Crucible
Chinese qualifier Zhao Xintong takes an imposing 11-6 lead over Welshman Mark Williams into the final of the World Snooker Championship final at the Crucible Theatre today.
Zhao, who is hoping to become China’s first world champion, raced to an early 7-1 advantage in the best-of-35-frame contest but Williams staged a mini revival in the second session to keep alive his hopes of a fourth title.
The two players will play to a conclusion today with the afternoon session starting at 1pm. Zhao leads 11-6, with the final a race to 17 frames. If required, the two players will return after their eight afternoon frames to finish the match from 7pm.
Williams, 50, was not at his best in the opening session and he failed to convert his best break of 61 in the sixth frame.
His 28-year-old opponent took full advantage but Williams hit back in the second session by winning five of the nine frames.
Williams still faces a huge task to deny Zhao the title on Monday with no player having overcome such a large overnight deficit since the tournament moved to the Crucible in 1977.
Zhao, who was banned for 20 months in January 2023 after a match-fixing investigation that rocked the sport, will bank a cheque for £500,000.
One strange subplot is that the veteran Williams is in two minds about whether or not to have lens replacement surgery in the coming months.
Williams said: “I have been reading up and talking to people who have had it done and I’ve got to be honest, it is putting me off a bit.
“I’ve got a big decision to make. A couple of people I have spoken to, especially Anthony Hamilton at length, have said it is no good under the lights and it has ruined his career.
“It has sort of put me under pressure. After this is finished, it is something I am going to have to look more into.”
