Shaun Murphy warns UK snooker prospects that they must up their work rate if they are to keep pace with their Chinese rivals.
Wu Yize became the second world champion from China on Monday night when he beat Murphy 18-17 in a classic Crucible final.
The 22-year-old’s stunning victory came 12 months on from Zhao Xintong becoming the first Chinese winner of the World Championship when he downed Mark Williams in Sheffield.
11 of the 32-player field at the Crucible this year were Chinese, while five of the world’s top 16 hail from the country.
There are more stars coming as well, with the likes of Chang Bingyu, 23, Jiang Jun, 20, and Lan Yuhao, 17, making their way up the rankings, while Wang Xinbo, 18, may be the next to make an impact on the professional tour.
The only three members of the top 16 under 30 years old are all Chinese and it looks likely that the nation will eventually dominate the top of the sport.
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Murphy feels the hard work, sacrifice and dedication the players from China demonstrate will need to be matched by their European rivals, if they are to keep up.
Wu moved to Sheffield with his father as a teenager, sharing a bed in a small room with his dad as he made his way on the professional tour.
The Magician suggests that whatever British youngsters think they are putting into the game, it is not as much as their Chinese contemporaries.
‘What we’re seeing is with back-to-back Chinese winners, we’re seeing now this wonderful talent coming through,’ said the 43-year-old.
‘Talent does nothing without hard work. You must give all the players from China absolute credit for the amount of graft and hard work they put in.
‘You hear the stories that Wu Yize coming over here with his family living in a room without any windows. I think some of the British players could do with taking a leaf out of their book and just realising that if they think they’re working hard they’re probably not.’
There were good signs for emerging talent from Europe at this year’s World Championship, with York’s Liam Pullen, Halifax’s Stan Moody and Polish star Antoni Kowalski all making their Crucible debuts.
Murphy added: ‘Having said that, it’s been a wonderful tournament for the newcomers. I think the two Yorkshire lads conducted themselves amazingly well. And of course Kowalski as well. He did so well on his debut.
‘They’ve got great futures ahead of them. But you can see with the investment that the Chinese government has made into snooker for the last 10-15 years, you can see the fruits of it now.
‘We had Xintong last year, we’ve now got Wu Yize this year. It’s great for snooker out in China. But as I’ve said a few times, it would be lovely to see that kind of investment mirrored in the UK.’
There is state funding in China into the sport that does not exist in the UK, with WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson saying: ‘There are schools in China with 30 tables. This is why there are so many players. It’s accessible to everybody.’
It is a numbers game when assessing the likely future of the sport, with the young British stars possessing great talent, but far more likely to emerge from China as there are so many more children playing the game.
‘I don’t think Xintong and Wu Yizhe and other players like that, I don’t think they’ve got any shots that the other younger players haven’t got,’ said Murphy. ‘I think it’s just about, your time will come and Wu Yize’s time was this week.
‘I think the problem, as we sort of alluded to a minute ago, is a wonder kid pops up but there’s 20 of them now, there’s 30 of them now. Maybe there’s more.
‘The strength in depth on the tour now is the best it’s ever been by far and you can see that I think.’
Wu took the Crucible by storm this year, as Zhao did in 2025, but any suggestion of an individual dominating snooker in the near future seems unlikely.
There were 15 different ranking event winners over the 2025/26 season and Murphy says this illustrates the wide array of special players competing on tour.
‘The problem is everyone else is so good aren’t they? There are so many players now vying for every tournament,’ he said.
‘I think when people will win six, seven and all those multiple events there was only a handful of people who could win anyway. That’s not the case now and the record is starting to show that.’