Zhao Xintong, who won the 2025 Snooker World Championships, made history: What a great redemption story this is

In the final of the 2025 World Snooker Championship held on May 5, British time, 28-year-old Chinese player Zhao Xintong defeated the Welsh "golden left hand" and 3-time champion with a total score of 18-12Mark Williams, becoming the first in China and the first in Asia to win the World Snooker Championship, creating history.

On May 5, 2025 local time, Chinese player Zhao Xintong won the 2025 World Snooker Championship in the United Kingdom

The final adopts a best-of-35 system of 18 rounds and is divided into 4 stages. Zhao Xintong, who reached the final as an amateur, led his opponent 17-8 in the first three stages. Up to Stage 4,Mark Williamsfound his form, chased it to 12-17 in the first four games, and scored 101 points in one shot. After the break, Zhao Xintong got a game back, and finally won the match 18-12 and won the prize money of 500,000 pounds.

The British newspaper The Independent said after the game that the Crucible Theatre was the site of some of the most important moments in snooker history. One immediately thinks of Dennis Taylor's dramatic victory in 1985, or one of the many victories of seven-time champions Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan on the greatest stage that the sport has to offer. But on a modest Monday night in Sheffield, 20 years after the doors of Chinese snooker were pushed open, Zhao may well have just changed the way hundreds of millions of people in Asia and around the world think, play and follow the sport.

Zhao Xintong's style of play made the game pleasing to the eye

In 2005, Ding Junhui defeated Steve Davis in the British Championship, which made snooker expected to usher in a wave of success in China. You know, there are more than 300,000 snooker halls in China, where it is considered a national sport. More than 150 million people watched the game in China. It's a very big market.

But there's always one thing missing: a world champion from China. The wait is over thanks to the emergence of one of the sport's most outstanding talents of all time. Just 227 days ago, Zhao Xintong completed the amateur tour with a 3-0 victory over Lithuania's Vilius Schulte-Ebert in an empty snooker hall in Sofia. Zhao Xintong was banned for 20 months for his involvement in the match fraud scandal, and it should be pointed out that although the 10 players were suspended for different periods of time, Zhao Xintong was not directly involved in gambling. Officials had two charges against Zhao Xintong at the time, firstly, he was the party to another player who manipulated two snooker matches, and secondly, he violated the rules by betting on the matches. Zhao Xintong then publicly apologized, admitting that he bet on snooker matches, but denied manipulating the game, and had no thoughts and behaviors of manipulating the game, he just responded to his good friend's request and "helped" his good friend, and never received any form of benefit in return.

Williams, 50, is the oldest finalist in Crucible's history

According to The Independent, what a great story of redemption whether you like the ending or not. Zhao Xintong is now a World Champion – and we've been waiting to hear those words. Zhao Xintong said: "This is very good for Chinese snooker. ”。“ I'm so glad I did it for them. It's incredible. It's like a dream. When I shook hands with Mark (Williams), I almost cried. My first goal was to qualify (to advance to the main event). In the future, many Chinese players can win this game. ”

The defeated Williams graciously admitted, "Everybody has to stand behind him (Zhao Xintong) and watch him – he can dominate everything, and (Zhao Xintong won) will definitely open some doors." It can only be good for our sport. ”