‘What lovely scenes’ – Ronnie O’Sullivan hailed for ‘gracious’ act after World Snooker Championship semi-final defeat

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN’s dreams of a history-making eighth Crucible world title were crushed in the semi-finals with a session to spare by the magnificent Zhao Xintong.

The Chinese Cyclone won EIGHT successive frames in a blistering 82-minute morning session to go 12-4 up – it was the fourth time O’Sullivan had experienced such an embarrassing session whitewash.

Reuters

Ronnie O’Sullivan has crashed out of the World Snooker Championship[/caption]

Reuters

Zhao Xintong toppled the Rocket in the semi-final[/caption]

And then in the evening, the amateur cueist – who only returned from a 20-month corruption ban last September – won five further frames to reach a maiden final.

O’Sullivan, 49, changed his cue tip THREE times – and his ferrule once – during this contest and those calls backfired as he struggled to live with the pace and power of the part-timer, who won 17-7.

This is the first time in 19 years the Rocket had lost in the semi-finals of the World Snooker Championship.

The crowd were on their feet and gave both men a standing ovation for this Friday night blockbuster and the apprentice schooled the master in an enthralling fashion.

Zhao, a qualifier, looked nervous when he came into the arena and after missing a sitter, O’Sullivan closed the gap to seven frames after a quarter of an hour.

Cries of “come on, Ronnie” could be heard every time their man came to the table and those voices grew louder when Zhao was punished for a poor black off the spot in frame 18 and he could not win the safety exchange.

Unranked Zhao – who has a Pokemon character on his bow tie – had been rocking a bit but he settled his visible nerves by taking frame 19 after his English opponent surprisingly missed a red.

It would end up being an expensive miss and deflated the hopes of even the most optimistic of fans.

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The tension in Zhao’s arm disappeared when he went into the mid-session interval with frame 20 in his pocket, thanks to a devastating 128 break, the highest of the semi-final.

O’Sullivan returned from the hiatus and put a seventh frame on the board but then Zhao responded by winning frame 22 in one visit, hitting some breathtaking long pots in a 85 break.

Zhao was punished for betting on results over a three-year period and also being a party to another player fixing two snooker matches.

Yet he did not fix a match himself and was given a lighter sentence than the other offenders for early admissions and his plea of guilty.

Zhao – one of 10 Chinese players caught up in a match-fixing sting in 2023 – wrapped up the win of his life with successive breaks of 63 and a closing 88.

This was the first time O’Sullivan had lost with a session to spare at the worlds in 31 years and for Zhao, this was his 46th win from 48 matches this season.

Zhao, 28, is China’s second world finalist and he will hope to do better than Ding Junhui, who lost in the 2016 showpiece occasion to Mark Selby.

A whole nation 5,000 miles away will hold its breath as he tries to get to 18 frames over two days and four sessions against either Judd Trump or Mark Williams.

O’Sullivan regrets snapping his cue in anger in January and he will need to find an appropriate piece of wood he is happy with ahead of the next season.

You wonder how much sharper he would have been heading up the M1 to Sheffield had he not been so inactive throughout 2025.

One man in the auditorium would have been extremely happy with the result – Stephen Hendry, who was on commentary duty, will remain tied on seven world titles for another 12 months at least.

The two potters were due to return at 2.30pm on Saturday but this early finish gives a headache to BBC TV producers.

On Saturday there will be a Big Break-style exhibition involving former world champions, so the World Snooker Tour do not have to dish out refunds to punters.

O’Sullivan was hailed for being “gracious” in defeat after he shared a congratulatory handshake with Zhao at the end of the match.

While Zhao, who admitted his opponent is his idol, took a moment to raise his hands and applaud O’Sullivan to the Crucible audience in a moment described as “lovely scenes” by the commentary team.

Speaking to the BBC after the match, O’Sullivan said: “Zhao played good. He deserved his victory, he did brilliantly all tournament.

“I don’t want excuses, I was here to play, that is it, he played better than me, I’ve been awful for quite a while.

“I’d like to play alright, but I felt I never gave him a game, and that’s disappointing.”

While Zhao said: “I can’t believe this. I want to say thank you to Ronnie because he helped me a lot before.

“I don’t want to win in the Crucible like this. Hopefully he can do the eighth Triple Crown here. He’s my idol. I want to say thank you.

“I tried to enjoy the Crucible. It’s my first time playing the one-table. I am doing well.

“I just want to play like an exhibition here. I cannot believe I am still here.

“I felt relaxed. I wanted to enjoy the experience. Sometimes the crowd here are for Ronnie and it was nervous for me.

“He deserved that, he is a legend here. I think my family were watching tonight in China. I will have a big lunch. Don’t think about snooker.”

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O’Sullivan shared a gracious moment with Zhao after the match[/caption]

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Zhao applauded O’Sullivan to the crowd[/caption]