Sign up to our free sports newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxing

Sign up to our free sports email for all the latest news

Sign up to our free sports email for all the latest news

When the main stage of the British Championship – still considered snooker’s second biggest event after the World Championship – kicks off in York on Saturday afternoon, there will be an amateur player lining up.

Having battled through four qualifying rounds to reach the Barbican Centre, he will face former world champion and current world No 9 Shaun Murphy in the last 32. Normally, an established star like Murphy would go into a match like this as a heavy favorite but according to the bookies, the 42-year-old is an underdog.

In fact, this amateur player is generally priced as fifth favorite to win the entire tournament – at odds of 14-1 similar to 2022 British champion Mark Allen, the man who has reached the final of the event each of the last two years Ding Junhui, three-time world champion Mark Williams and 24-time ranking 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 is no ordinary amateur snooker player.

This is Zhao Xintong. The 27-year-old star who, after winning brilliantly at Britain 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 from the Barbican crowd will be fascinating to watch. Before his ban, he was quickly becoming a fan favorite due to his flamboyant style of play, ferocious long potting and incredible skill with a cue in hand. But the match-fixing scandal has left something of a black mark on his name.

open the image in the gallery

The high-profile scandal engulfed snooker in early 2023 as 10 Chinese players were accused of varying degrees of match-fixing and ultimately saw Liang Wenbo and Li Hang banned from the sport for life. Former world number 11 Liang’s conduct was identified as “particularly disgraceful” by the WPBSA disciplinary panel which conducted 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 ban began, after adding the 2022 German Masters title to his shock UK Championship crown.

It is worth reiterating that Zhao did not personally fix any matches – hence his punishment being on the lighter end of the scale – but was found guilty of complicity with another player who fixed two matches and bet on snooker matches himself. He saw a 30-month ban reduced to 20 months after early admissions and his guilty plea, but there are those in 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, making two 147 breaks in the process – the first player ever to reach the maximum . on that circuit.

open the image in the gallery

Those victories earned him an invitation to compete in the UK Championship qualifying as an amateur and he sent out Sunny Akani, Jiang Jun, Noppon Saengkham and Ricky Walden in Leicester this week to book a match with Murphy. He is the most dangerous of the 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 on the very lower end of these suspensions, he was never accused of cheating, he was never accused of fixing any matches,” Murphy said. “He knew about it and of course it’s against the rules.

“I would say it’s been a very difficult 18 months for him. He’s served his time and he’s back racing. He was arrested, he took his punishment on the chin, admitted it straight away, paid all his fines and since then he’s done everything right, there is an element of rehabilitation, so he is back.

“The biggest problem with Zhao Xintong is that he’s really bloody good! It might be fair to say he’s done nothing for 18 months but train and he looks very, very sharp.”

Although Murphy is magnanimous in his assessment of Zhao, there is no doubt that the Chinese cue man’s snooker comeback is causing some controversy. Although he doesn’t want to be drawn by the kind of reception he might get in York, the man himself admits that the whole situation has changed his outlook.

open the image in the gallery

“Two years ago I made a little mistake and now I’m coming back, so I know how important snooker is to me,” Zhao said after beating Walden to seal his place at the Barbican. “I want to get back to the snooker table and get trophies. These are very big lessons for me, it makes me appreciate snooker more.

“These two years are very long for me, I keep training every day. I know I will come back so I have to keep the confidence so if I play well I can win anything. I keep training and just need to come back .I know it’s very hard, but I think it made me stronger later on.”

In 2021, Zhao launched his career by beating John Higgins, Jack Lisowski and Barry Hawkins before beating future world champion Luca Brecel 10-5 in the final of the UK Championship to announce his arrival among snooker’s elite. Three years later, repeating the trick to signal his return could be an even bigger statement.