Zhao Xintong on brink of historic World Snooker Championship title

Zhao Xintong is just one frame away from winning the World Snooker Championship, leading Mark Williams 17-8 ahead of the last session of the final.

It has been a dominant performance from the 28-year-old, establishing a huge lead early on and showing few signs of nerves as he moves towards the winning line.

The players will return for the fourth and final session at 7pm and, unless we see the most remarkable string of frames in Crucible history, Zhao will become China’s first ever world champion.

Williams tweeted after the third session: ‘Oh well, that was tough, I’ve not got enough cue power to combat tough conditions like Zhao. His cue power is superb. prob the best potter I’ve ever seen.

‘Last session in few hours, support I have had this last 2 weeks have been amazing from the crowd and everyone.’

The first session on Sunday afternoon ended with Zhao 7-1 ahead as he took to the atmosphere of his first Crucible final impressively.

However, as good as he was, Williams also played a long way from his brilliant best, really struggling throughout the session, winning only the fourth frame and making a solitary half-century.

Sunday evening’s second session went much better for the Welshman as he took five of the nine frames to get himself back into the match.

The scoreline looked a lot more respectable but the three-time champion remained in deep trouble at 11-6 behind and will have remained frustrated at missing opportunities to be closer.

The 16th frame in particular was a great chance for the 50-year-old, making 63 but then missing frame ball red, which allowed Zhao to return to the table and make a brilliant 71 to win it.

Williams desperately needed to find form in Monday afternoon’s third session, but didn’t manage it, still far from the player who had brilliantly beaten John Higgins in the quarter-finals and Judd Trump in the semis.

The first two frames were shared, but then Zhao took the next three, with two half-centuries.

The Welshman grabbed the 23rd with a 66 but continued to fail to build any kind of momentum, with the Cyclone knocking in a 67 in the next to go 16-8 ahead.

Williams had a fantastic chance to take the final frame of the session but missed a red late on, with Zhao stepping in once again to pinch it and go just one from victory.

It looks like it will be an early night in Sheffield, with Zhao’s feathers apparently unruffled and now so close to victory.

Former world champion John Parrott feels Williams’ brilliant four wins over Wu Yize, Hossein Vafaei, Higgins and Trump have taken it out of him too much.

In comparison, Zhao thrashed Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-finals and had a day off on Saturday, while Williams battled to his win over Trump that evening.

‘Mark’s really just not got his stuff,’ Parrott said on the BBC. ‘It’s taken too much out of him to get there, you can see that it’s a match too far.

‘I’d like to see the match-up when they’re both fresh, it would be a proper final. But at the moment it looks like Mark’s half punched himself out.’

There have been one-sided finals in recent years, with Ronnie O’Sullivan beating Kyren Wilson 18-8 in 2020 and Judd Trump downing John Higgins 18-9 in 2019.

The heaviest defeat for a World Championship runner-up at the Crucible was John Parrott being hammered 18-3 by Steve Davis in 1989.