Zhao Xintong thrashes Ronnie O’Sullivan with session to spare to surge into World Championship final
O’Sullivan (left) was crushed by Zhao on Friday (Sportimage Ltd/Alamy Live News)
Zhao Xintong romped into the 2025 World Snooker Championship final after inflicting a 17-7 rout on Ronnie O’Sullivan with a session to spare.
The former UK champion, who will return to the professional tour next season after serving a 20-month suspension for match fixing offences, became the first amateur to reach the Crucible showpiece, and only the second Chinese player after Ding Junhui in 2016.
Zhao did so in emphatic fashion, winning 13 of the 16 frames on Friday to sweep aside idol O’Sullivan, whose hopes of landing a record-breaking eighth World crown were abruptly dashed.
The Rocket suffered only his second defeat with a session to spare at The Crucible, 31 years after he was beaten 13-3 by John Parrott in the second round.
“I can’t believe that,” Zhao told BBC Sport. “I need to say thank you to Ronnie because he has helped me a lot before. He’s my idol.
“I’ve just tried to enjoy the Crucible. It’s my first time playing on the single table here, it’s an amazing time for me and I just want to enjoy it because I don’t know how many times I can try to enjoy it here.
“Sometimes, the crowd is helpful for Ronnie and he deserves that, he is a legend here, so I needed to control myself.”
๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ #HaloWorldChampionship pic.twitter.com/t938QWKAJy
โ Live Snooker (@Livesnooker) May 2, 2025
The players returned for their second session locked at 4-4, with O’Sullivan reportedly having switched from a titanium ferrule to a brass one. However, he was slow out of the blocks and was punished ruthlessly punished by his clinical opponent.
Indeed, Zhao hit breaks of 57, 112, 82, 57, 67, 115 and 87 as he reeled off eight successive frames for a 12-4 advantage.
It marked only the fourth time in 33 appearances that O’Sullivan, a winner in his six previous Crucible semi-finals, had suffered a session whitewash at the iconic venue.
The Rocket – appearing in his record-extending 14th Crucible semi-final – stopped the rot when the players returned for the evening session, while taking a close 18th frame on the blue to reduce the deficit to 12-6.
But after missing a couple of opportunities, Zhao quickly regained control of proceedings with a run of 62 and 128 total clearance.
O’Sullivan, playing in only his second tournament of 2025, responded with 57 to make it 14-7. However, further breaks of 85, 63 and 88 wrapped up a dominant victory.
“Zhao played good, he deserved his victory,” the seven-time World champion said of his opponent. “I think he’s done brilliantly all tournament and all credit to Zhao. He played better than me.
“I’ve been awful for quite a while, those performances are in there, they’ve been coming out quite regularly recently.
“I’d just like to play all right and I just felt like I never gave him a game, so that’s a bit disappointing.”
โ Live Snooker (@Livesnooker) May 2, 2025
Zhao will play the winner of the other semi-final between Judd Trump and Mark Williams, which is finely poised at 8-8.
Trump lead 5-3 overnight and runs of 52 and 70 gave him the first frame of the second session. He then produced a 65 counter clearance to pinch the second after Williams broke down on 57 having missed a black off the spot.
Nevertheless, the Welshman responded well with breaks of 105 and 84 on the way to reducing his arrears to 7-6.
Two scrappy frames were then shared, before a lovely 96 clearance saw Williams level the contest heading into Saturday’s concluding two sessions.
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World Snooker Championship 2025 Semi-Final Scores
Friday May 2
Mark Williams (8-8) Judd Trump
Zhao Xintong 17-7 Ronnie O’Sullivan