Zhao Xintong leads 11-6 in final of snooker worlds in bid to become first winner from China

Sheffield (UK) | China is edging closer to having its first world snooker champion after Zhao Xintong established an 11-6 lead over Mark Williams at the halfway point of the final at the Crucible Theatre.

Zhao needs to get to 18 frames to claim the sport's biggest prize, with the remaining two sessions scheduled for Monday.

The 28-year-old Zhao, a slick left-hander who thrashed seven-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 17-7 in the semifinals, was in complete control at 7-1 up after the opening session against Williams — another great of the game who, at age 50, is bidding to become the oldest world champion.

Williams won five of the nine frames in the evening session, including a crucial final frame, to reduce his arrears but Zhao was still in a great position to become just the third player in history to win the worlds after coming through qualification.

Zhao is playing as an amateur in Sheffield, England, having only recently returned to competitive action following a 20-month ban for his role in the sport's biggest match-fixing scandal. He was ranked No. 9 in the world when his suspension began after accepting charges of being a party to another player fixing two matches and betting on matches himself.

Zhao, the winner of the prestigious U.K. Championship in 2021, has been free to play since his ban expired in September and, in January, secured a return to snooker's main professional tour for next season.

The only other Chinese player to have reached the final of the worlds is Ding Junhui, who in 2016 lost to Mark Selby 18-14. Ding is the trailblazer for a raft of Chinese players — one of them being Zhao — to have burst through, making snooker huge in their homeland.