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Key events
Williams 7-14 Xintong (1-52) Zhao gets in again, pumps blue into the jaws of left-centre … and it zips across the table, dropping into right. This game! Mark will be feeling it’s not his day and rightly so, but with 59 points left, Zhao runs out of position so plays safe … ish.
Williams 7-14 Xintong (1-42) Screwing back off a red, the white is headed to the middle pocket … it hits the far jaw … and somehow stays out. Again, when it’s your fortnight, it’s your fortnight. But what’s this?! A red that hits the far jaw and stays on the lip! Can Mark capitalise and get to within a mere six? He cannot, unable to sink the black, and at this point, the sense is that even if Zhao hands him chances, he doesn’t have enough left to take them,
Williams 7-14 Xintong (0-23) Zhao leaves breaking the pack to the last possible moment, ruffling it off the black; in comms, Shaun felt he should’ve gone when he had an insurance red in play. All he’s got is a longun to the yellow bag … he misses … but so does Mark to middle. This allows a starter to right-middle the, from other side, a yellow to the same hole. Already, the advantage is growing, and with various reds loose, this could well be another frame closer to the trophy.
Williams 7-14 Xintong (0-23) Mark’s break leaves longun to right corner and Zhao cues nicely to smack it into the hole. But is he on a colour? Er, just, bridging awkwardly from near the pink to cut the green; he misses, it hits the side, kisses the white … and drops into right-centre. When it’s your fortnight, it’s your fortnight, and I’m afraid Mark, a long-time favourite of this blog, is no longer fighting for the title but to avoid a serious beating.
Back come our players. What does Mark have left?
Williams 7-14 Xintong Zhao isn’t even playing that well, but he’s playing better than Mark, who knows it’s did. When the players come back after after the interval, if he wins all four frames he’ll be China’s first world champion. The thought doesn’t seem to be affecting him in any way, positive or negative.
Williams 7-13 Xintong (45-58) Zhao floats up the table off the blue … and his position is perfect, just above the rail. He slots it nicely, and again, I’m afraid this contest is over.
Williams 7-13 Xintong (45-50) A cut-back down the side to right corner … stays out. Zhao gets cover off the pink, around which mark can easily swerve … but he gives it too much, the white drops too, and he leaves a free ball. If Zhao sinks that cushioned red and gets on to a colour, this frame is his.
Williams 7-13 Xintong (45-20) A mishit from Mark leaves white next to blue; Zhao sends it down but an unpleasant kiss means a tricky shot to get on to his second red, which he plays nicely. A poor shot, though, sees him kiss green off blue, and frustrated, he unloads the suitcase at a long pot, gets nowhere nears, and somehow leaves the white near the yellow bag. So Mark goes at a longun to right corner, it stays out … and Zhao gets away. This is now a chance for a 3-1 mini-sesh and a seven-frame lead. Sat in his way is a red in the middle of black cish and not much else.
Williams 7-13 Xintong (45-0) Mark bins those loose reds, but can he forces his way into the pack off the brown? Ear, not really. He clunks the side, liberates only one red, and a poor safety allows Zhao a dart at a cut to corner; it stays out.
Williams 7-13 Xintong (11-0) Zhao goes at one to left-centre, hitting the far jaw; Mark cuts superbly into right-corner, and there are loose balls there for him. And remember, he’s playing here to share the first mini-sesh – not the kind of result that will give his opponent pause – though if he’s successful in so doing, he’ll guarantee us some kind of evening dig.
Williams 7-13 Xintong Mark fouls, concedes, and might regret that attacking safety. In fairness, though, that was a fantastic break from Zhao.
Williams 7-12 Xintong (7-58) Zhao keeps the run going with long and mid-ragne pots that are barely believable – the power with which he hits the middle of the middle is uncanny and borderline spooky. And, as I type, he lines up frame-ball, a long cut-back down the side. “Oh stop it! Stop it!” kvells JV. “The game’s not meant to be that easy!” He then plays safe with Mark needing two four-point snookers to tie, assuming he takes blacks with the two remaining reds.
Williams 7-12 Xintong (7-30) Zhao opens reds off the blue, he’s on an easy one, and from here should secure the frame. Of course, he might get nervous, but we’ve seen nothing from him to suggest that’s likely – we’re extrapolating from the weaknesses shown by others.
Williams 7-12 Xintong (7-11) Mark sinks a long starter but doesn’t get the screw he needs to finish top-side of the blue. That means he can’t use it to break the pack, and it’s soon end of break; Zhao then goes at skinny one to left corner, and when it goes down, he has a chance to exploit the attacking safety shot Mark played immediately prior.
“Since the start of the second session, Mark Williams has turned this into exactly the kind of match he needs it to be,” says Gregory Phillips. “Unfortunately he was already in a six-frame hole. I think it will continue to be nip and tuck all day today, and I just don’t see him digging out. He’s up against the one player who seems to be unflappable as he is.”
I agree. Zhao is too good and too calm to toss that lead against a player more likely to pinch frames than hit a devastating seam that sees him peel off six on the spin.
Williams 7-12 Xintong A poor frame from both men; is it the start of something?
Williams 6-12 Xintong (66-18) Mark plays safe with the frame almost safe, then Zhao leaves him frame-ball over the right-corner bag; he steers it home, adds a nice cut-back black, and that’s that sorted.
Williams 6-12 Xintong (42-18) If you’d just looked at the score, you’d have assumed Zhao played lights-out yesterday, but he didn’t. He wasn’t especially close to the level we’ve seen from him, earlier in the tournament and prior to; rather, he just made sure to cash in when in stroke, which tells us plenty about how damn good he is. From here, though, Mark should restore the five-frame deficit.
Williams 6-12 Xintong (27-18) Oh whaaaat?! A close-range diagonal slot to left-middle, Mark walking around the table to play the next ball … except he’s missed the pot! I don’t suppose it should surprise us that, after the monumental effort it took to beat Higgins and Trump, a 50-year-old is flagging, but this isn’t your regular individual. Meantime, though, another error from Zhao offers another opportunity.
Williams 6-12 Xintong (16-11) Mark goes hard at a red and misses; Zhao surprisingly undercuts to middle. So TWPM nails a starter, then sneaks in tight between brown and baulk cushion; the escape hits the black and leaves a horrible cut-back; Mark has a look, then has the balls replaced. Which I understand, but I bet he’s regretting the call when Zhao, having had one try, his easily second go. All the more so when he’s left a pot to right corner … except he misses, allowing Mark a chance to score.
Williams 6-12 Xintong (7-11) A miss from Zhao allows Mark to get going, but seeking to break pack off blue, he dials down the power and slides off the side of it; end of break. Then, from the baulk rail, Zhao goes at one in mid-table, tickling it towards left corner … and in! But he’s soon forced to play safe, and these down-in-the-weeds frames are the kind that Mark must win, except he must win almost every frame of any description.
“Williams really needs to win the session, and already he’s up against it,” says Simon McMahon. “14-11 gives him a fighting chance this evening, but 15-10, or worse, and it’s hard to see how he can win. His chances right now are somewhere between slim and none I reckon, as Zhao doesn’t look in any sort of mood to ease towards the finish line.”
I agree. I said after the first session that I thought it was over, and nowt I’ve seen since has changed that opinion. It’s a matter of when, not if – much as I’m desperate for a classic, as we all are.
Williams 6-12 Xintong Zhao is six frames away; there are seven to play in this sesh.
Williams 6-11 Xintong (5-65) Zhao secures the frame, then makes double-sure with a red sent to left corner via rest. Meantime, Sean Clayton emails thusly: “From a Sheffieldist perspective, would a Zhou win be good news, bad news or neutral for the World Championship’s future at the Crucible?
I’m veering between options 2 and 3 but I’m sadly struggling to see a path to a long-term Crucible future, esp. given the Hearns’ recent comments…Zhao secures the frame, then makes double-sure with a cut to left corner via rest. Meantime, Sean Clayton emails thusly: “From a Sheffieldist perspective, would a Zhou win be good news, bad news or neutral for the World Championship’s future at the Crucible. I’m veering between options 2 and 3 but I’m sadly struggling to see a path to a long-term Crucible future, esp. given the Hearns’ recent comments…”
Barry would, ideally, like to stay at the Cruce, but I don’t know what the ask is to know whether it’s any way feasible, or part of a process that enables him to say well, we tried. I don’t think Zhou winning will matter because I doubt the competition moves to China given time differences. The Middle East, though, can’t be ruled out.
Williams 6-11 Xintong (5-51) Zhao is, for mine, the best pack-cracker in the world, and if that shot works out well, the frame should be his. Oh, but he hits the wrong ball, so it’s back to baulk, just above the rail, with most of the table blocked off. Ohhhh, but Mark J Williams! He finds a plant, snaps it down, manages to force home the yellow and he’s away. Until he misses blue, to middle, and by a way! At 11-6 down, you can’t be doing that, and from here, Zhao should extend his advantage.
Williams 6-11 Xintong (0-23) Before we get going, I know that Zhao’s first name is Xintong; that Chinese names give the surname first. But in snooker, for whatever reason, we refer to our Chinese players as though their surname is their first name – we’ve been watching Ding for two decades now, and never called him “Junhui”. Anyroad a(nother) poor break from Mark allows Zhao to drive home a starter – he has the resting heart rate of a corpse – and quickly builds.
Email! “It’s worth looking at the full report of the disciplinary commission,” writes Andrew Goudie. “It makes the point (in paragraph 274) that Zhao was the only one of the 10 players involved who did not himself fix any match, and that he has shown genuine remorse for his actions.”
I’ll bet he did. But yup, I’ve read it, which is one reason I’m advocating for clemency.
And here comes Mark J. He knows what he’s up against; he knows it’s probably gone. But he knew that about his career in 2018, only to return at his wfie’s behest and win this competition. Here we go!
Zhao exercises his neck like a fighter about to make his ring-walk. If he wins today, being him will never be the same again. Can he ascend to the ranks of the immortals?
So how does he do it? He’ll need to start well, of course – he needs two frames to make sure we get an evening sesh, something of which we’re reminded by the presence of John Parrott, beaten 18-3 by Steve Davis in 1989. But otherwise, his long-potting will need to be of 2000-standard, he’ll need to stop missing easy balls when in, and he’ll need Zhao to feel the weight of the 1.411 billion people waiting to see if he can bring the trophy home to China.
The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that there are two players in this final and our preamble mentions only one. That’s partly because we needed to chat about Zhao and only Zhao before moving on, and partly because what happens today is up to him.
Mark J Williams, already a three-time world champ and now seeking to become the oldest person ever to lift the little lady, is a genius. But for him to win 12 frames before Zhao wins seven, he’ll need a lot of help from his opponent. No one has ever overturned so deep a deficit, but no one has ever been Mark J Williams – apart from Mark J Williams.
Preamble
There’s a simple reason we’re all here today: love. We love the snook, we love the Cruce, we love the cliches and we love all the little bits and pieces. How is it, say, that on every day of every tournament, the incomparably knowledgeable Crucible audience also comprises the most mirthful people in the world? Does Rob Walker go on like that all the time, even, er, to Mrs Walker? Will Hazel manage to make anyone cry in interview?
So when someone threatens all of that – and much as we’d prefer not to – we’re well within our rights to feel a way about them. And that, I’m afraid, is the case with Zhao Xintong, poised to become China’s first world champion but also recently returned from a 20-month ban for his involvement in match-fixing.
On the face of things, it’s not easy to reconcile. If we consider how much we love snooker, imagine how much Zhao loves it – the love it takes to work hard enough to become one of the best players in the world, winner of a triple crown event at 24; to hone a flowing, thrilling, unique style suffused with joy; to see your life change for the better because of it. How could anyone risk all of that – while risking the essential integrity of our sport – for a few quid?
To understand how what happened could happen, we need to take ourselves back to the pandemic. Zhao, like all but one of the accused, was living in Sheffield; he was young, a long way from home; and then lockdown happened. During this period, Liang Wenbo and Li Hang, now banned for life, used their influence as respected elders to prevail upon younger players – who were isolated, homesick and in some cases short of money – to fall in with their plan to make money through betting. They were all caught, and here we are.
No one wants to be talking about this today. To watch Zhao play is to celebrate the game itself; he is its present and its future, armed with all the qualities he needs to share it with new people and places, while rejuvenating old ones. If he wins this final, that will happen.
We could, of course, say he was old enough to know better and that he’s lucky to be back playing; we’d probably be right. But we could also look back to our own youth, consider all the stupid stuff we did, and through the complex but essential process of forgiving ourselves, grant others the same clemency. We can’t ignore what went on, but we can be sure Zhao will carry the shame and regret for as long as he’s around, decide that’s punishment enough, and be happy that he’s been offered another opportunity to glorify the thing that brought us all here to begin with. Because having considered how much he loved snooker before, can we even imagine how much he loves it now?
Start: 1pm BST
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