I’ve been involved in snooker for over 50 years now and, every so often, something or someone comes along to leave you in awe. Almost every time I watch Zhao Xintong play, I’m left feeling that way.
This young man is very, very special, and if anyone can defy the weight of history and the famed Crucible Curse in the coming weeks, it is Zhao Xintong. Make no mistake, he is the man to beat in Sheffield.
I’ve not been shy in my praise of Zhao already, and the charge sheet is growing by the day. Comparisons with the likes of Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan are to my mind entirely justified, and nobody can deny that right now, he is playing snooker on a different plane to everyone else in the sport.
His riot at last week’s Tour Championship was bordering on the ridiculous, dispatching an in-form John Higgins 10-1 and then beating world number one Judd Trump 10-3 in one-sided final. He took on two of the very best there and took them apart.
Zhao ready to take over from Hendry and Ronnie
I really do think Zhao’s achievements have been underestimated. He’s now the first player ever to win all three Players Series tournaments in the same season – the World Grand Prix, Players Championship and Tour Championship – and the manner in which won those titles has been Hendry-esque, with the flair of O’Sullivan thrown in for good measure.
This is not going overboard or a case of being swayed by recency bias, either. We just need to look at the cold, hard facts. What Zhao is achieving at such pace is staggering.
It isn’t out of the question that he finishes the season as world number one, with no points coming off his ranking for a year. He’s just bagged three of the biggest tournaments on the calendar, and will return to Sheffield a truly genuine superstar – something snooker has been searching for.
And we must put those achievements into context. 12 months ago, he had to start from the bottom, having just made his way back from the 20-month ban incurred for his role in the betting scandal that rocked snooker.
It was an awful time for the sport, but Zhao’s involvement was minor compared to some, and he had served his punishment by the time the qualifiers for last year’s World Championship came around.
He made it through those, for all Elliot Slessor made him work mighty hard, and the rest, as they say, is history. How he’s turned his life and career around is remarkable and I know from seeing people at the venues, the vast majority of fans who turn out to watch Zhao play have accepted him back with open arms.
Fast learner continues to raise the bar
You can see on the table what a quick learner he is. His safety game has improved immeasurably in such a short space of time, but I think it speaks of his personality and temperament that when he won the World Championship last spring, he didn’t go overboard with the celebrations, nor does he appear to dwell too much on the painful defeats.
That must be very hard to play against. Even if you feel like you’ve got him under the pump, you wouldn’t know it from looking at his demeanour – he just plays the table.
And like all great champions, he’s got that aura about him now, much like Steve Davis had in my day, and then Hendry and Ronnie, where players are almost beat before they play him because they don’t believe they can stop the best version of Zhao.
He’s got so many qualities to his game. That temperament, much-improved safety play, long potting better than anyone else in the sport, and heavy, rapid scoring that puts so much pressure on his opponents. He’s got it all.
Even John and Judd were unable to keep him quiet or drag him into protracted safely battles last week, and it forced mistakes from other areas of their games. John looked bereft of answers almost immediately, and Judd spoke brilliantly after what was a tough loss in the final, not wanting to blame issues with his tip and hailing Zhao as the best player in the world.
That endorsement will do for me, and while we hear so much about players having issues with tips, new cues and changing ferrules, or getting frustrated with tight pockets and then big pockets, we don’t hear any of that from Zhao. He just keeps playing. And winning.
Some were disappointed with how he started the new season following on from Sheffield, but being world champion for the first time is a life-changing event for anyone. Most first-time world champions find things difficult initially – look at Luca Brecel for example – but Zhao was back to winning ways before Christmas and has completely dominated thereafter.
Add the fact that he’s spending huge amounts of time away from home, while still learning and fulfilling endless television commitments in his second language, at the same time as trying to become the best snooker player in the world. He deserves a huge amount of credit for taking all of that in his stride.
Crucible Curse stands in the way of more glory
The end result is that he’s playing snooker on a different level to anyone else in the game, and it’s now about whether he can defy history. And it’s not just the Crucible Curse we are talking about – with no first-time world champion to have ever successfully defended their crown the following year – but Tour Championship winners have an awful record in Sheffield, too.
Plenty of good ones have tried before. Steve Davis lost 10-1 to Tony Knowles when he returned as world champion for the first time in 1982, more recently Luca, and then even Kyren Wilson last year despite he having enjoyed a fantastic season overall.
Is Zhao the one to rewrite history? I genuinely think he has the best chance yet. Whether he’s a betting proposition at around the 5/2 mark is debatable, but I’m scratching my head as to who can stop him on current form.
Can Selby or Ronnie take a stand?
Mark Selby has lost a few closes ones to Zhao this season, but he’s been excellent for much of the campaign and won the UK Championship in December. At his best, over multiple sessions, you suspect Mark would fancy beating anybody, but I’m not sure he’ll be able to shut Zhao down like he can others – and he’d have to score very well himself.
Perhaps a fresh and hungry Ronnie could do it, and he at least looks in better shape this year than he did when losing heavily to Zhao in the semi-finals last season. Maybe Kyren, another who will be chomping at the bit, but they’ve all got questions to answer on the table that Zhao does not.
In the end, it might be that pressure brings him down, the pressure of being defending world champion. A potential second-round meeting with compatriot Ding Junhui could prove a strange dynamic, but this is a man who seemingly feels no pressure.
We’re clutching at straws. Zhao is the best player in the world on everything we’ve seen since Christmas, the dominant force that snooker has been crying out for. But the scary thing about it all? He might not have reached anything close to his ceiling yet.
And snooker needs Zhao Xintong. Fresh blood, the next truly great player to carry the game forward and do what the likes of Hendry and O’Sullivan did for so long at the Crucible Theatre and beyond.
C’mon Zhao, it’s time to rewrite the history books and rule the world once again.
