Zhao moved one frame away from a maiden semi-final berth at the 2025 World Championship, a feat that will trigger an unusual rule in the snooker rankings.
The Chinese cueist orchestrated a 12-4 quarter-final lead over Chris Wakelin on Tuesday and requires just one more frame on Wednesday to reach the single table setup at the Crucible Theatre.
The 28 year-old struggled to reproduce his best form but was ultimately able to take advantage of a significant dip in standard from his opponent, who had accounted for Neil Robertson and Mark Allen’s exits earlier in the competition.
If Zhao completes the job as expected in the third session, he will continue his remarkable run from the very first round of the qualifiers.
The former UK champion had already become the first player under amateur status to reach the last eight of a World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.
But should he extend his journey to the semi-finals, he will also become the first player to activate a lesser-known clause in the snooker rankings.
Zhao, who was among the ten players who were involved in the Chinese match-fixing scandal, had already safeguarded his professional status for next season through his Q Tour performances.
After serving his 20-month ban, the former UK champion returned in September and duly dominated the feeder amateur circuit – winning four times and compiling a brace of maximum breaks.
Those results sent him to the top of the Q Tour rankings, which awarded him a two-year professional card and a spot in the World Championship qualifiers draw.
There had been a lot of confusion in recent weeks, however, surrounding what would actually happen if Zhao earned enough money to, in theory, break into the top 64.
In the past, amateur players have appeared on the one-year snooker rankings list that is used to determine fields at the World Grand Prix, the Players Championship, and the Tour Championship.
Generally, though, we have not seen amateur players listed on the official two-year rankings comprising the current professionals on the World Snooker Tour.
Yet it has been confirmed by WST that if Zhao Xintong were to reach the semi-finals of this year’s World Snooker Championship, he will be given a top 64 ranking.
The £100,000 prize money for reaching the last four in Sheffield, plus the £10,000 that he won for reaching the last 32 of the UK Championship in November, would be enough to take him up to number 57 on the provisional end-of-season standings.
This is important, because while the original two-year card meant that Zhao would have to start from scratch with zero ranking points, this new one-year card for breaking into the top 64 will ensure that he can keep those valuable ranking points earned from prize money this season.
“Former UK Championship winner Zhao is already enjoying the deepest ever run in this event by an amateur – though he is set to rejoin the pro tour next season,” the WST article said.
“In fact if he reaches the last four, the guaranteed prize money of £100,000 will be enough to lift him into the top 64 of the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings, which means that going into 2025/26, the 28-year-old will retain the ranking points he has earned this season.”
It’s a bizarre situation that many probably felt would never happen, but the fact that it is set to transpire does raise the point as to whether or not it is actually fair.
The biggest question being, why is any amateur player suddenly able to appear on the official two-year WST snooker rankings list when this has never happened before?
It very much seems like a convenient way, given his overall marketing appeal, to guarantee Zhao’s rapid rise back up the rankings – which has been helped, of course, by his own tremendous performances on the baize.
If he does reach the semi-finals and trigger this just-confirmed clause, it will push a lot of current professionals down one rung on the rankings ladder.
With world number 48 Dominic Dale retiring and to be removed from the list, currently ranked in 64th place on the provisional end-of-season rankings is Zak Surety.
An uncomfortable scenario, whereby an unlucky competitor could have been told that they had in fact been relegated after all, seems to have been avoided, though.
That’s because Surety is only competing in the first year of a two-year card and therefore already assured of his main tour ticket for the next campaign either way.
What will happen to the card originally awarded to Zhao Xintong through finishing first on the Q Tour remains unknown.
The former German Masters champion reached as high as number six on the official snooker rankings list before his ban in 2023.
If he were to go all the way in Sheffield and capture the 2025 World Snooker Championship title, the £500,000 champion’s cheque would secure his immediate return to the top 16.
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