「经济学人」Right on cue

Another victory for a rising sports power

It has been a long time coming. On May 5th a soft-spoken, left-handed 28-year-old named Zhao Xintong (pictured) raised the famed trophy in the legendary Crucible Theatre in the northern English city of Sheffield, and was crowned men's snooker champion of the world. He had defeated a three-time winner, Mark Williams, by 18 frames to 12, thereby pocketing £500,000 ($660,000) in prize money. “This is going to take snooker to another level,” Jason Ferguson, chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (wpbsa), the sport’s governing body, told the bbc.

He could well be right. Half of those viewing the final on television are thought to have been in China, where, some estimates suggested, 150m people had tuned in. One Chinese media report described it as “a live broadcast of the transition to a new dynasty in the world of snooker”.

China has been rising in the snooker world since an 18-year-old named Ding Junhui defeated Stephen Hendry, a seven-time world champion, at the China Open in 2005. But though Mr Ding reached the world final in 2016, he has never won. Of the world's 40 top ranked male players, 11 are Chinese, according to wpbsa. (Some of them are based in Sheffield.) Last year a 20-year-old phenomenon named Bai Yulu won the women's world championship, held in China for the first time.

Mr Zhao has some baggage. He was one of ten Chinese players banned for match-fixing in 2023, in his case for 20 months. He did not fix any matches himself, but he accepted charges of being party to another player doing so, and of betting on matches.

With the ban served, his win could have big implications. Mr Ferguson believes it could help snooker to be included as a new sport at the Olympics in Brisbane, in 2032. “The size of snooker and how important China is to the [International Olympic Committee], someone has to look at this and say ‘this is now snooker's time’.”

In the basement of the Yundu pool hall in Beijing, most of the 26 tables were in use on a recent afternoon (pool and snooker are often spoken of interchangeably in China, and many casual players stick with pool). Much of the talk was about Sheffield and Mr Zhao. A 40-year-old man named Chen leaned on one of the tables and summed up the mood. “We're all very proud. How could we not be?”

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Right on cue”(May 8th 2025)

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