Zhao Xintong v Mark Williams live stream | World Snooker Championship final preview
Zhao and Williams go head-to-head for glory
Rising star Zhao Xintong and evergreen veteran Mark Williams face off in the 2025 World Snooker Championship final at The Crucible.
Youth and experience collide in a two-day battle for the sport’s ultimate prize in Sheffield, with a place in the history books beckoning for the winner.
The 22-year age gap between the two box office left-handers is the biggest ever between two World Championship finalists, with Williams having won the first of his three world titles when Zhao was just three years old.
The Welshman has rolled back the years to reach a fifth Crucible final, having lost the first of those back in 1999 before going on to lift the trophy in 2000, 2003 and 2018.
At the age of 50, Williams now stands on the cusp of a fourth world crown and becoming the oldest World Champion, ahead of Ronnie O’Sullivan – who was 46 when he won his seventh world title in 2022.
Williams returned to Sheffield with modest expectations having suffered issues with his eyesight in recent months, but now has his sights firmly set on recapturing the sport’s most prestigious prize.
He opened up with a 10-8 victory over 21-year-old Wu Yize, before dispatching Hossein Vafaei 13-10 and holding his nerve to halt John Higgins’ comeback in the deciding frame of a quarter-final classic.
The 26-time ranking event winner then produced another vintage display to defeat world number one Judd Trump 17-14 in the semi-finals, tally his tally of centuries to eight for the tournament.
Zhao, meanwhile, stands on the brink of a monumental triumph that would see him become Asia’s first World Snooker Champion.
The 28-year-old is only the second Chinese player, behind Ding Junhui in 2016, to reach the World Championship final, and has done so after returning from a 20-month ban after he was one 10 players sanctioned in a match-fixing scandal.
Having returned to the Q Tour, Zhao has won 46 of his 48 matches since the end of his ban and arrived at The Crucible as an amateur after breezing through four qualifying matches to reach the main event for just the second time.
UK Champion in 2021, Zhao is appearing in the third ranking final of his career and is bidding to become only the third qualifier – behind Terry Griffiths and Shaun Murphy – to be crowned World Champion.
He opened up with a 10-4 rout of last year’s runner-up Jak Jones in round one, before overcoming compatriot Lei Peifan 13-10.
The Cyclone then swept aside Chris Wakelin 13-5 in the quarter-finals, before pulling off a seismic 17-7 rout of his snooker idol Ronnie O’Sullivan with a session to spare in a stunning semi-final showing.
Zhao is now guaranteed £200,000 and a place in the world’s top 32, with the £500,000 top prize potentially catapulting him into the top 16.
Williams has won four of their six previous meetings, including their first round qualifier in the 2017 World Championship, though it was Zhao who prevailed in their most recent encounter at the 2022 German Masters en route to the title.
The match gets under way from 1pm BST on Sunday for a maximum of eight frames, before resuming at 7pm and will be played to a finish over the best of 35 from 1pm and 7pm on Monday.
How to watch Zhao Xintong v Mark Williams live stream
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3) Once registered, go to the sports homepage and select ‘Snooker’ from the left-hand menu
4) Select the play icon next to the match in progress and the stream window will appear
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