On May 5, 2025, Beijing time, the World Snooker Championship ushered in the most exciting moment, and the champions and runners-up of this competition will be produced. The World Championship is the highest-level event in snooker, and only the player who wins the championship can become a "world champion". The tournament is a huge tournament with a prize fund of £500,000 for the winner, as long as the player wins the championship and is ranked in the top 16 in the world for the next two cycles.
In this tournament, the Chinese lineup is fully attacked, with all professional players participating, and wild card player Zhao Xintong also joining. Ding Junhui, Zhang Anda, Xiao Guodong and Si Jiahui directly entered the main draw stage as seeds, while Zhao Xintong, Lei Peifan, Wu Yize, Zhou Yuelong, Pang Junxu and Fan Zhengyi stood out in the qualifying round and successfully entered the main event. A total of 10 Chinese players appeared at the Crucible Theatre, setting a new record for the number of participants in the World Championships. Although the Chinese athlete has never won the World Championships before, this time there is hope for a historic breakthrough.
After the first round of the main competition, 6 members of the Chinese Legion broke into the top 16 with a good record. In the 1/8 game, wild card players Zhao Xintong and Si Jiahui successfully broke through and advanced, and then in the 1/4 game, Zhao Xintong played against Wakelin, and Zhao Xintong won the promotion with a big score of 13-5 with a precise long platform. Si Jiahui faced O'Sullivan, who had an advantage in both historical records and world rankings, and finally Si Jiahui lost 9-13.
Among the top four players, in addition to O'Sullivan and Zhao Xintong, Trump and Mark. Williams beat Brecel and Higgins respectively to reach the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, Zhao Xintong faced O'Sullivan, although O'Sullivan won 7 World Championships, but this season's state is not good, Zhao Xintong stabilized his mentality, dared to fight, and finally eliminated O'Sullivan with a score of 17-7 to advance. Mark. Williams is still young, and the big score is 17-14 upset the biggest favorite Trump.
In the final, Chinese players Zhao Xintong and Mark. Williams competed, and Zhao Xintong returned to Crucible as a wild card this time, which attracted widespread attention. He has been ranked sixth in the world, has two heavyweight ranking championships in the British Championship and the German Masters, and is a very talented representative of Chinese snooker. However, the 2023 ban penalty took a sharp turn for his career and plunged him into a slump. After nearly two years of precipitation and adjustment, Zhao Xintong made a strong comeback, won four consecutive championships in this season's Q Tour, locked in his professional seat for next season in advance, and showed amazing resilience.
In the qualifying round of this World Championships, he won four consecutive games to advance to the main event, and defeated former runner-up Jack Jones 10-4 in the first round to announce the return of the king. defeated his junior brother Lei Peifan in the 1/8 match, and then eliminated Wakelin in the 1/4 match to advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals against world champion O'Sullivan, he won 17-7 to advance to the finals, so far he has set a record for the best record of the Wild Card World Championships, and also tied Ding Junhui's best result in the 2016 World Championships runner-up. He also has a British Championship title and is only one Masters title away from a Grand Slam.
Currently ranked sixth in the world, Mark Williams is one of the most accomplished players in snooker history, winning 26 ranking tournaments in his career and completing three Grand Slams twice. He is known for his exceptional accuracy and is known as "the most accurate man in the world", but in recent years his striking accuracy has decreased due to vision problems. Despite failing to win a ranking tournament this season, he still performed well in non-ranked tournaments, winning the Champion of Champions and finishing runner-up at the Saudi Masters. Last season was even more impressive, winning both the Tour Championship and the Open Championship.
In this World Championships, Mark. Although Williams had been claiming before the game that his eyesight was declining and his condition was not good, in the first round of the main game, Mark. Williams eliminated China's Wu Yize 10-8 to advance to the round of six. In the 1/8 match, Mark. Williams defeated Wafei 13-10 to advance to the quarterfinals. In the 1/4 match, Mark. Williams faced his old rival Higgins, and although he was once 1-6 down, he then chased the points strongly and advanced 13-12. faced the biggest favorite Trump in the semifinals, and also reversed 3-7 to advance to the final.
In the first stage of the competition, Zhao Xintong started with momentum, and although he was pulled back by Williams after three consecutive cities, he quickly adjusted and won four more games to end the first stage with a huge advantage of 7-1. In the second stage, Williams struggled to chase the points, winning five of the nine games, although he showed strong resilience, but the disadvantage of falling behind in the first stage was too great, and he was still at a significant disadvantage of 6-11.
At the beginning of the third period, in the 18th inning, Williams took the lead in teeing off, and Zhao Xintong scored 46 points with a precise long-platform attack and turned to defense. Not to be outdone, Williams relied on three lucky consecutive unleashes to hit the red ball to launch a counterattack, but only scored five points before making a mistake. Zhao Xintong seized the opportunity to complete the clearance and expanded the score to 12-6, only 6 games away from victory.
It is worth mentioning that the two have also played each other in the German Masters before, and the plot is almost the same: Williams kicked off, Zhao Xintong scored a red ball from afar, started the offensive rhythm, and finally played a triumphant song all the way to the final and won the championship. After that, Williams also adjusted his tee strategy, trying a more conservative "sinking bottom" kick-off, but still failed to reverse the passive situation. Zhao Xintong faced a strong opponent, showed calmness and toughness, continued to suppress the opponent, and showed his strong competitive state and psychological quality.
The 19th game was a tug-of-war with a changeable pace and frequent mistakes. Zhao Xintong's tee shot left a long platform opportunity, which Williams failed to grasp, and Zhao Xintong then failed to score. Uncle Ma then got started with a large angle of the red ball and connected the blue ball, but after only scoring 6 points, the white ball accidentally fell into the bag, which is regrettable.
Zhao Xintong did not find a suitable offensive opportunity after that, so he could only choose to defend, but the defense left a long platform, and Williams could not connect the color ball after scoring the red ball. Zhao Xintong tried to attack from afar, but only scored 11 points before he was interrupted. The two sides fell into multiple rounds of defensive stalemate, Uncle Ma once again got the opportunity to attack the bottom bag but failed to hit, and Zhao Xintong also failed to hit the bag.
Subsequently, Uncle Ma successfully scored through the long platform attack in the lower left corner pocket, and cleverly hid the cue ball behind the coffee ball to defend and control the situation. Zhao Xintong tried to solve the ball but hit the black ball, and then left a chance in the right pocket, which Williams took advantage of to score 23 points and then missed. In this game, although the two sides had defensive and accuracy advantages, it was always difficult to sustain the single-shot score and was frequently interrupted.
Zhao Xintong made a mistake after only scoring 18 points again, and the game entered a stage of multiple offensive and defensive transitions. Williams eventually scored 58 points with steady ball control, and when the remaining two red balls were in the bank, he chose not to take risks and instead focus on defense. Zhao Xintong left a lipstick ball on defense, and Uncle Ma scored and achieved a super score, successfully winning the game and chasing the score to 7-12.
In the 20th game, Williams took the lead in attacking, but only scored 7 points before switching to defense. Zhao then seized the opportunity to get started, scoring 58 points all the way to complete the overrun, extending the lead to 51 points, and despite the 43 points left on the table, Williams still tried to make a turnaround through defense. However, his one-shot defense failed to work, and instead sent 4 points, and finally chose to concede defeat, and Zhao Xintong extended the score to 13-7.
Entering the 21st inning, the two sides began to fall into a defensive battle, Williams took the lead in breaking the game, and successfully connected the coffee ball to attack, once scored 45 points and then turned to defense again. Zhao Xintong then accurately attacked the red ball through the bottom bag and connected the blue ball to enter the game, but the attack was interrupted after only 13 points. Williams tried a long shot unsuccessfully, and Zhao Xintong scored again on the long platform, showing an advantage in accuracy. However, he made a mistake when he scored 40 points, leaving a bag of lipstick balls. Uncle Ma took the risk to hit the red ball with a stick, but the cue ball unfortunately fell into the bag, not only giving away 4 points, but also giving Zhao Xintong a free kick opportunity. Zhao Xintong steadily scored the green ball to get started again, and successfully completed the clearance, and finally expanded the score to 14-7, one step closer to victory.
In the 22nd game, Zhao Xintong scored many times, contributed 52 points in a single stroke, and won the next game with 104:1. In the 23rd game, Zhao Xintong had a chance to get started, but unfortunately he didn't seize the opportunity. Williams scored 66 points in a single stroke to pull one back. In the 24th game, Zhao Xintong scored 67 points in a single stroke and won the game 79:26, leading 16:8, only 2 games away from winning the championship!
![defeated the world's No. 1, the Chinese teenager was upset 5-3, and Zhao Xintong made his comeback debut and returned 3-0[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)