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When the main stage of the UK Championship – still widely considered snooker’s second-biggest event after the World Championship – kicks off in York on Saturday afternoon, there will be an amateur player taking to the baize.
Having battled through four rounds of qualifying to reach the Barbican Centre, he will line up in the last 32 against former world champion and current world No 9 Shaun Murphy. Normally, an established star like Murphy would go into a match like this as heavy favourite but according to the bookies, the 42-year-old is an underdog.
In fact, this amateur player is generally being priced as fifth favourite to win the entire tournament – with odds of 14-1 being similar to those of 2022 UK champion Mark Allen, the man who has reached the final of the event each of the last two years Ding Junhui, three-time champion of the world Mark Williams and 24-time ranking event winner Neil Robertson.
This despite the fact that he hasn’t competed in a professional tournament since 2022. As you’ve probably gathered by now, this isn’t any ordinary amateur snooker player.
This is Zhao Xintong. The 27-year-old star who, after brilliantly winning the UK Championship back in 2021, has spent the past two years banned from snooker for his role in the match-fixing scandal that engulfed a number of the sport’s biggest Chinese players.
York this week marks Zhao’s return to the big stage and the reaction of the Barbican crowd will be fascinating to observe. Before his ban, he was fast becoming a fan favourite due to his flamboyant style of play, ferocious long potting and unbelievable skill with a cue in his hand. But the match-fixing scandal has left something of a black mark by his name.
The high-profile scandal engulfed snooker in early 2023 as 10 Chinese players were charged with varying degrees of match-fixing, and ultimately Liang Wenbo and Li Hang were banned from the sport for life. Former world No 11 Liang’s behaviour was identified as “particularly disgraceful” by the WPBSA disciplinary commission that carried out the hearing.
The two biggest names caught up in the scandal were 2021 Masters champion Yan Bingtao, who is currently serving a five-year ban until December 2027, and Zhao, who was ranked ninth in the world when his suspension began, having added the 2022 German Masters title to his shock UK Championship crown.
It is worth repeating that Zhao did not personally fix any matches – hence his punishment being on the more lenient end of the scale – but he was found guilty of being party to another player fixing two matches and betting on snooker matches himself. He saw a 30-month suspension reduced to 20 months following early admissions and his guilty plea but there are those within the sport who wanted to see harsher punishments for every single player caught up in the mess.
Zhao’s ban expired in September and he has been playing on the amateur Q Tour since then, where he has been in scintillating form to win events in Manchester and Sweden, while making two 147 breaks in the process – the first player ever to make a maximum on that circuit.
Those victories earned him an invite to compete in UK Championship qualifying as an amateur and he duly dispatched Sunny Akani, Jiang Jun, Noppon Saengkham and Ricky Walden in Leicester this week to book a clash with Murphy. He is the most dangerous of wildcards in the draw and before learning that Zhao would be his opponent, Murphy gave a considered response to the younger man’s return to snooker.
“It has to be said that Zhao Xintong was at the very lower end of those bans, he was never accused of cheating, he was never accused of fixing any matches,” said Murphy. “He did know about it and that is, of course, against the rules.
“I’d say that it’s been a very difficult 18 months or so for him. He has served his time and he’s back competing. He was caught, he took his punishment on the chin, admitted it straight away, paid all his fines and since then he’s done everything right. There’s an element of rehabilitation, so he’s back.
“The main problem with Zhao Xintong is he’s really bloody good! It might be fair to say he’s done nothing for 18 months but practice and he looks very, very sharp.”
While Murphy is magnanimous in his assessment of Zhao, there is no doubt that the Chinese cueman’s snooker return is causing some controversy. While he doesn’t want to be drawn on what sort of reception he might receive in York, the man himself acknowledges that the entire situation has changed his outlook.
“Two years ago I made a little mistake and now I come back, so I know how important snooker is for me,” said Zhao after beating Walden to seal his spot at the Barbican. “I want to come back to the snooker table and get trophies. These are very big lessons for me, it makes me appreciate snooker more.
“This two years is very long for me, I keep practising every day. I know I’ll come back so I need to keep confident in myself so if I play well I can win anything. I keep practising and just need to come back. I know it’s very hard, but I think it made me stronger. Later I will be stronger.”
In 2021, Zhao launched his career by beating the likes of John Higgins, Jack Lisowski and Barry Hawkins before downing future world champion Luca Brecel 10-5 in the UK Championship final to announce his arrival among snooker’s elite. Three years on, repeating the trick to signal his return might just be an even bigger statement.
