Ronnie O’Sullivan has hailed ‘phenomenal player’ Zhao Xintong ahead of their World Snooker Championship semi-final and suggested his ban from snooker was ‘a bit unfair’.
The pair meet for a place in the Crucible final, with O’Sullivan in his 14th World Championship semi-final and Zhao in his first.
The Rocket has long been a big fan of the Chinese star’s game, becoming something of a mentor to him in the past, working together in practice at Victoria’s Academy in Sheffield.
‘He’s a phenomenal player, a phenomenal player,’ O’Sullivan said of Zhao. ‘He’s only going to get better and stronger. Yeah, a great, great talent.’
Zhao’s career was on a spectacular upwards trajectory after winning the 2021 UK Championship and 2022 German Masters, but in January 2023 he was suspended from the sport as part of a match-fixing investigation.
In June in that year he was given a 20-month ban for being concerned in fixing matches on the World Snooker Tour and betting on snooker.
That ban ended in September 2024 and Zhao returned to the amateur game, romping through the Q Tour and quickly winning back his place on the professional circuit.
He has returned to the Crucible at the earliest opportunity after winning four qualifying games and has now picked up three more wins to reach the semis.
‘Yeah, amazing, really,’ O’Sullivan said of Zhao’s spectacular return. ‘I’m not surprised what he done in Q Tour. I’m not surprised he dominated that.
‘But obviously coming through the qualifiers, some fantastic players and coming here at the Crucible and doing what he’s done, it’s incredible, really.’
Unlike other players who were banned as part of the match-fixing scandal, the 28-year-old was not found guilty of fixing matches himself, which meant his ban was relatively short.
O’Sullivan admits he is not especially well educated on the details of the investigation, but does feel that Zhao was unlucky with his punishment.
‘Yeah, I think it was unfortunate for some of the boys,’ said the Rocket. ‘I think they wasn’t really involved in it from what I gather. So some of them, you just think, it was really harsh for them.
‘There’s some there that obviously were at it. And I think for some of them, it was a bit unfair. Maybe, I don’t know.
‘I don’t know the full facts of it to be honest with you. But from what I heard, was just caught in the firing line and a bit naivety, I suppose.’
Before his ban from the game, O’Sullivan worked with Zhao in practice at his Sheffield base, which the Rocket was talked into but enjoyed.
Explaining how it came about, O’Sullivan said: ‘Ah, Victoria, she’s always at me, “can you help my players? Can you do this? Can you do that?”
‘So I was like, she’s such a nice woman. She’s so good with all the Chinese players. She’s so good for snooker. She’s been great help with me with certain things. So I couldn’t say no.
‘And I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it. It’s always nice to share your knowledge with other players and see if you can help them, then great.’
O’Sullivan has been Zhao’s hero since he was a boy first getting involved in the game, so his first Crucible semi-final will be a huge occasion for him.
‘If I play with Ronnie I’m very happy because he’s my idol,’ he said. ‘When I was very young I got a lot of videos of him. I’d be very happy to play with him in the semi-final, it’s a good match.’
On the compliments O’Sullivan has paid him over his career, he said: ‘I need to say big thanks to Ronnie because he helped me really well. Big thank you to him. Sometimes he talked about me, it’s good news. It made me very happy and gave me some power to play snooker.
‘He’s my favourite player. He plays very nice snooker and looks so good. Everything is so easy. He’s my idol and we are good friends.’
The semi-final clash gets underway on Thursday afternoon, played over four sessions and coming to a close on Saturday afternoon.