Sawt Falasteen - Snooker star Zhao: from ban to cusp of Chinese sporting history

Now 28, Zhao is on the cusp of becoming China's first snooker world champion -- and if he does would surpass his compatriot.

Zhao demolished seven-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 17-7 on Friday at Sheffield's Crucible, the unofficial home of snooker, in the semi-finals.

The left-hander faces Judd Trump or Mark Williams in the final on Sunday to Monday, and a chance to write his name in Chinese sporting history.

Zhao's journey from picking up a cue aged eight to a first appearance in the World Snooker Championship final has not been without controversy.

The 2021 UK Championship winner is playing at the Crucible as an amateur as he continues his comeback from a 20-month ban for his involvement in a major betting scandal.

Chinese players in recent years have become a significant force in snooker, but in 2023, 10 players from the country were banned in a match-fixing case that shook the sport to its foundations.

Two players, Liang Wenbo and Li Hang, were banned for life.

Zhao's suspension was the shortest, reflecting the fact that while he bet on matches, he did not throw them.

- Away from home -

Like many of the Chinese players now making a name for themselves, Zhao has made the northern English city of Sheffield his base.

Zhao is with the Chinese-run Victoria's Snooker Academy, a two-floor facility just 10 minutes by foot from the Crucible.

Not far away there is also the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy.

A record 10 Chinese were among the final 32 players competing at the Crucible, reflecting just how prominent the country now is in the sport.

For many of them, including Zhao, it all comes back to Ding, China's first snooker star.

"My goal when I was younger was to become someone like Ding Junhui," a 17-year-old Zhao told a Chinese documentary in 2015 called, "Becoming Ding Junhui".

The so-called grandfather of Chinese snooker won the UK Championship three times and the Masters in 2011.

Ding lost the world championship final in 2016.

- 'Luckiest kid in the world' -

Zhao was born in the tourist city of Xian but as a child moved to the metropolis of Shenzhen, just over the border from Hong Kong, when his parents went there for work.

An only child, Zhao's father Zhao Xiaowei is the vice-president of a hospital and his mother, Wen Anxiao, is a nurse in the same hospital.

Zhao first became interested in snooker because of some tables set up outside small stores near his home.

As his interest grew, his parents put a snooker table in one of the rooms in their home and made it his practice room.

Even then, as is typical for many Chinese parents, they were sceptical about his sporting ambitions and wanted him to study.

In the documentary, Zhao's mother recalls: "I asked him, when you've finished university what job will you do?

"He said, 'Play snooker'. He said it very firmly, he didn't need to think about it."

She says that was the moment she decided to fully support his decision to make snooker his life.

Acknowledging that support from his parents, Zhao said: "I'm the luckiest kid in the snooker world."

The same programme includes a ringing endorsement from Ding's father, calling Zhao his "favourite" player and a "rare" talent.

"There's no problem with this child's character," he says.

O'Sullivan is another big fan of Zhao, even after suffering a crushing defeat to him as the Chinese player seized on the English great's every error.

The two have been known to practise and dine together, and they shared a warm embrace in the dressing rooms after Zhao's devastating display.

Away from snooker and as his fame grows, Zhao's personal life has attracted scrutiny in China.

Several years ago photos emerged of him with a Chinese student he met in Britain in which he appeared to show off his family's supposed wealth.

One picture showed Zhao sitting in the boot of a Rolls Royce.

T.Ibrahim--SF-PST