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The head of snooker’s governing body believes Zhao Xintong’s coronation as world champion could prove to be one of the most significant moments in the sport’s history as the game now targets entry into the Olympic Games in 2032.
Zhao became the first Chinese winner of the World Snooker Championship on Monday, defeating Mark Williams to cap a remarkable comeback, nine months after returning to the sport from a 20-month suspension for his involvement in a match-fixing scandal.
Zhao did not directly throw a match, but he accepted charges of being party to another player fixing two matches, with 10 Chinese players suspended in 2023. Snooker is a huge sport in China with about 300,000 recognised snooker halls and more than 150 million believed to have been watching Zhao’s historic triumph .
Jason Ferguson, the chair of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Assocation, believes the result can open more doors for the sport than ever before: not just in China, but worldwide. Furthermore, having a Chinese world champion could enhance snooker’s attempt to make it into the Brisbane Olympics.
“Realistically, Australia is a target,” Ferguson said. “We’re talking to all the multi-sport bodies. There’s a lot of politics involved, but the size of snooker and how important China is to the IOC [International Olympic Committee], someone has to look at this and say this is now snooker’s time.”
Ferguson laid down the challenge for sporting bodies in the United Kingdom to try to keep up China. “We need to see snooker in this country treated like a major Olympic sport, that’s the difference,” he said. “We have Sport England recognition, but we do need to get the sport treated the same as others. Maybe it’s the introduction into events like the Commonwealth Games, the Olympics, maybe even the Paralympics, that matters.”
Ferguson said he expects an even greater boom for China now Zhao is world champion, before making a bold prediction for the 28-year-old’s career. “Zhao has the potential to become the richest earning player in the history of the sport,” he said.
“That’s quite a bold statement when you think about the titles players like Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan won. But the size of the market is huge and when you see the association of the brands who want to partner with snooker, it has endless potential.
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“This is one of the biggest occasions snooker has seen. Snooker in China is treated like any national sport. To see a world champion returning to China a national hero is really going to send the sport to another level.”
