Zhao Xintong – don't call it a comeback

On June 6 2023 a verdict was handed down that threatened to tear apart the sport of snooker.

In the 58-page document, ten Chinese players were handed bans ranging from 20 months to life for match fixing.

One of them, Zhao Xintong, was given a 20-month suspension from the sport after admitting to ‘agreeing or making an effort to agree to contrive the outcome of the match’ of two of his close friend Yan Bingtao’s matches against Ricky Walden and Oliver Lines in March 2022. Alongside this, he admitted to betting on the ‘result, score, progress, conduct or any other aspect of the Tour or Match’ in events sanctioned by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) – snooker’s world governing body.

Less than two years later, he lifted the World Championship trophy after a blistering 18-12 final triumph over veteran Mark Williams. His victory on Monday means he is also the only amateur to claim the world title in the Crucible era, and the youngest winner since Shaun Murphy in 2005.

But, to quote LL Cool J, don’t call it a comeback, he’s been here for years. Of the ten Chinese players charged with match fixing offences, only Zhao Xintong remained in the UK, while others returned to China. Looking back at the 2023 judgment handed to the ten players, Zhao’s involvement was unique. Paragraph 274 helps us make sense of the situation surrounding his involvement, and hints towards how he made his return so successfully. It says: “Zhao Xintong, alone among the respondent players, did not himself fix any match. His involvement was limited to placing bets for Yan [Bingtao] through Li [Hang], whereby he became liable as a party to the two match fixes. He is good friends with Yan, whom he has known since the age of 16. He attempted to dissuade Yan from match fixing on both occasions with no success. He felt he had no other option but to place the bets for Yan, as Yan had requested. He has shown genuine remorse for his actions.”

His remorse, presumably, stretches to the fact he has spent two years in the wilderness, and had to enter this year’s tournament as an amateur, before seeing off four qualifiers to even make it to the main draw. Given Ronnie O’Sullivan, 49, John Higgins, 49, and Mark Williams, 50, reached this year’s World Championship quarter-finals, two years out of the game for Zhao Xintong, 28, may not have been much to navigate career-wise. He is still banned in China until July, after the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association announced an additional domestic ban that outlasted his global ban. But having to bounce back from being embroiled in what some called the worst match-fixing scandal in a decade tells us a lot about Zhao’s character and mental fortitude as he picks up his career where he left off.

Controversy in sport is an indefinable thing. For his entire career, Zhao will be attached to that 20-month ban. Whether or not it becomes the headline or a footnote is dependent on his future success. It could be an asterisk against his name or it could be relegated to a two-line summation in a ‘Controversy’ section on his Wikipedia page. What is for certain is his impact in the past fortnight will go far beyond the 950-seater Crucible venue.

“We are talking about a national hero – he has entered the history books of this sport and in China he will probably be one of the biggest stars there.” Ferguson, chairman of the WPBSA, told BBC Sport. Having been a relatively fringe sport until the turn of the millennium, China now boasts an estimated 50 million amateur players. TV audiences for key matches have exceeded 200 million viewers. The world snooker rankings tell two stories currently – at the moment there is just one Chinese player in the top 25 – Ding Junhui. Look beyond that, and there are 18 ranked between ranks 25 and 100. Zhao Xintong will enter back into the rankings after his World Championship triumph. The Chinese snooker revolution that started in 2005 with Ding Junhui could have been derailed in 2023, but has been ignited by Zhao Xintong 20 years later. As Hazel Irvine said in her closing of the World Championship coverage: “A star is reborn.”

Photograph by Mike Egerton/PA Wire