Snooker icon Ronnie O’Sullivan’s previous feedback about Gamers Championship winner Xhao Xintong have been vindicated.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has in contrast Zhao Xintong to a different participant he himself idolised (Picture: Getty)
Zhao Xintong’s journey to turn into a snooker icon goes simply how Ronnie O’Sullivan predicted following his newest ranked title. The Chinese language surprise clinched his second main piece of silverware in as many tournaments on Sunday.
Zhao, 28, beat John Higgins 10-7 to get his arms on the Gamers Championship crown in Telford. That was solely a fortnight after he additionally added the World Grand Prix to his assortment in Hong Kong. O’Sullivan is broadly thought to be the best snooker participant of all time. Nonetheless, ‘The Rocket’ reserves that place for fellow seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry, so far as he is involved. The 50-year-old has credited Hendry because the peer who has impressed him most over time. Nonetheless, it was within the build-up to the 2022 Gamers Championship that he in contrast the idol to an rising Zhao.
“The final time I used to be this excited a couple of participant was after I noticed Stephen Hendry play after I was solely about 9 years previous,” he mentioned on the time. “Zhao is the one one since that made me suppose, ‘Wow, he might be one thing particular.'”
The 12 months after these feedback had been made, the general public’s notion of Zhao was shifted when he was suspended for his function in a match-fixing operation. Zhao didn’t repair any matches himself and as an alternative positioned bets on behalf of one other participant, but it nonetheless resulted in a 30-month ban.
To additional illustrate his level, O’Sullivan even projected that Zhao might be the one to problem his and Hendry’s joint document of World Championship trophies.
“He is possibly the one one on the market who might topple a few of these,” mentioned The Rocket earlier than highlighting his colleague’s potential within the grander scheme. “Zhao will be nearly as good as he desires to be; he has acquired the sport in his arms.”
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