1. Zhao Xintong is a Chinese professional snooker player who is the reigning World Champion, having won the 2025 World Snooker Championship.
22 Facts About Zhao Xintong
1. 2.
Zhao Xintong is the first Chinese player, the first Asian player and the first amateur to hold the world title.
3.
Zhao Xintong was only the third player, after Steve Davis and Neil Robertson, to win a two-session ranking final without conceding a single.
4.
Zhao Xintong was charged with having knowledge of match-fixing and betting operations on the World Snooker Tour, although he was not personally involved in fixing matches.
5.
Zhao Xintong was born and raised in Songgang Subdistrict, Bao'an, Shenzhen, Guangdong in 1997.
6.
Zhao Xintong's father, Zhao Xiaowei, transferred from Xi'an to Songgang in 1995, is a finger reconstruction surgeon and the Vice President of Songgang People's Hospital as of the 2010s.
7.
Zhao Xintong's mother Wen Anxiao is a local working as a nurse at the same hospital.
8.
Zhao Xintong began playing at age eight on snooker tables set up outside stores near his house.
9.
Zhao Xintong dropped out of Songgang Middle School in 2009 to train full time.
10.
Zhao Xintong built on this success by reaching the second round of Asian Tour Events the Yixing Open and Zhengzhou Open.
11.
Zhao Xintong was narrowly defeated in the first round of the ACBS Asian Snooker Championship.
12.
Zhao Xintong's high ranking in the Q School Order of Merit gave him entry as a top-up player in professional events.
13.
Zhao Xintong made his first appearance at a Triple Crown event at the UK Championship, but lost in the first round.
14.
However, Zhao Xintong won a two-year card for the main tour after Advani declined the invitation.
15.
Zhao Xintong met Ronnie O'Sullivan in the second round of the 2016 English Open.
16.
O'Sullivan said afterwards that Zhao Xintong's attacking style of play had reminded him of seven-time World Champion Stephen Hendry at a similar age.
17.
In December 2020, Zhao Xintong reached the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix.
18.
Zhao Xintong reached the final of the 2022 German Masters.
19.
Zhao Xintong won his first match in the main stages of the 2022 World Snooker Championship, as he defeated Jamie Clarke, but lost in the second round to Stephen Maguire.
20.
Just one year after his second ranking event win, Zhao Xintong was suspended in January 2023 by the sport's governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.
21.
Zhao Xintong was charged with being concerned in fixing matches on the World Snooker Tour and betting on snooker.
22.
Zhao Xintong became the first Chinese player, the first Asian player and the first amateur to win the World Championship.