Back Чжаа Сіньтун Byelorussian Zhao Xintong German Zhao Xintong Spanish Zhao Xintong Finnish Zhao Xintong French Zhao Xintong Italian Zhao Xintong Dutch Zhao Xintong Polish Zhao Xintong Portuguese Zhao Xintong Romanian
 Zhao at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic | ||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 3 April 1997 Xi’an, Shaanxi, China | |||||||||||||||||
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| Sport country |  China | |||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | The Cyclone[1] | |||||||||||||||||
| Professional | 2016–2023 | |||||||||||||||||
| Highest ranking | 6 (May 2022) | |||||||||||||||||
| Century breaks | 136 | |||||||||||||||||
| Tournament wins | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ranking | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Zhao Xintong (Chinese: 赵心童; born 3 April 1997) is a Chinese former professional snooker player who is currently serving a 20-month ban from professional competition after committing offences relating to betting on snooker.
Zhao attracted attention as a teenager, with a number of top players commenting on his potential in the sport. He joined the professional tour in 2016 and won his first ranking title and first Triple Crown title at the 2021 UK Championship, defeating Luca Brecel 10–5 in the final. With this win, he entered the top 16 in the world rankings for the first time and became eligible for his first Masters.[2] He won his second ranking title at the 2022 German Masters when he whitewashed Yan Bingtao 9–0 in the final, becoming only the third player, after Steve Davis and Neil Robertson, to win a two-session ranking final without conceding a frame.[3]
In January 2023, the sport's governing body suspended Zhao as part of a match-fixing investigation involving ten Chinese players.[4] He was subsequently charged with being concerned in fixing matches on the World Snooker Tour and betting on snooker. Following an independent disciplinary tribunal, Zhao was banned from professional competition until 1 September 2024.[5] However, the end date for this ban is uncertain, when the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association (the CBSA) upheld the original ban length of 30 months for domestic tournaments: the WPBSA later confirmed that players not in good standing with their local association cannot rejoin the World Snooker Tour.[6]
- ^ "Zhao Xintong". World Snooker Tour. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
- ^ "Zhao beats Brecel to win UK Championship". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
- ^ "Zhao Xintong wraps up whitewash victory over Yan Bingtao to secure German Masters victory in Berlin". Eurosport. 2022-01-30. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
- ^ "UK Championship winner Zhao latest to be suspended". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
- ^ "WPBSA Statement 6 June 2023". WPBSA. 2023-06-06. Retrieved 2023-06-06.
- ^ "China's longer bans for snooker match-fixers may apply globally, WPBSA confirms". 22 June 2023.