NEARLY THERE! Zhao Xintong Moves Closer to Victory vs. Mark Williams | Halo World Championship 2025
Draping the Chinese flag over his shoulders in an iconic moment of celebration, the 28 year-old is the first player with amateur status to lift the sport’s most prestigious trophy.
Zhao is also only the third qualifier to win in Sheffield having emerged from the very first round of the preliminary competition last month, winning an unprecedented nine matches in total.
It brings the curtain down on the 2024/25 snooker season, so let’s reflect on what it all means with the last snooker rankings recap of the campaign.
World number one
Judd Trump was one win away from taking his total past the £2 million mark on the official two-year snooker rankings list.
The 35 year-old will be disappointed that his term ended at the semi-final stage in the Crucible Theatre, but he remains way out in front as the game’s world number one.
Kyren Wilson is the only person who is likely to mount any sort of serious challenge for top spot during the upcoming 2025/26 campaign.
The Kettering cueist won’t have a lot of points to defend until the players return to Sheffield next year, but he remains almost £700,000 shy of Trump’s current tally as things stand.
Indeed, such is the extent of Trump’s lead that if he had his entire earnings from the 2023/24 term deducted from his total now, he’d still have more than enough to be ranked second in the world.
Top 16
With so much money on offer at the World Snooker Championship, it’s unsurprising to see plenty of movement elsewhere in the top 16.
Following his superb run to the final, 50 year-old Mark Williams rises to number three in the world – just ahead of his fellow Class of 1992 graduates John Higgins and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Despite only reaching the second round, Ding Junhui rises four places to sixth based on the rolling two-year system.
Mark Selby drops three rungs on the ladder to seventh, just ahead of Neil Robertson, Barry Hawkins, and Mark Allen.
There has been controversy surrounding the Chinese competitor’s immediate return to the elite bracket.
Some players have questioned the validity of his earnings from the season being used to determine his new ranking considering he wasn’t technically a professional player.
But the World Snooker Tour and the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association have both insisted over the course of the last week that this little-known clause is allowed under the rules.
Zhao pocketed £500,000 for his exploits in Sheffield in addition to the £10,000 he collected for qualifying for the UK Championship, which sees him instantly return to the big-time following the conclusion of his ban last September.
That’s bad news for Ali Carter, who is the unfortunate potter who will drop down to 17th in the pecking order.
Completing the top 16 behind Zhao, meanwhile, are Zhang Anda, Xiao Guodong, Shaun Murphy, Si Jiahui, and Chris Wakelin.
There are now five Chinese snooker players ranked inside the top 16 for the first time.