Wu Yize wins maiden ranking event title at the International Championship

The 22-year-old collects the £175,000 top prize on offer at the South New City National Fitness Center and moves into the world's elite top 16 rankings for the first time, meaning he will be a seed for the upcoming UK Championship in York.

Two decades on from Ding Junhui's historic breakthrough win in Beijing, Wu is the ninth different cueist from mainland China to lift a ranking event trophy.

The final was a classic clash of youth versus experience with 28 years between the two contestants - the fourth biggest gap between ranking event final opponents, ever.

Fifty-year-old Higgins was going for a 34th ranking crown and aiming to create history in becoming the first player to have won a ranking title in five different decades of their life. Wu, who turned professional in 2021, was going for his first, but he was no newcomer when it came to finals having been runner-up at last season's English and Scottish Open showpieces.

In both of those previous final appearances, Wu got off to a dreadful start falling 4-0 behind before going on to lose the first session. Against four-time world champion Higgins, Wu surely needed to begin well, and he did just that as breaks of 86 and 62 helped him settle down with a 2-0 lead.

Higgins, going for his third ranking trophy of 2025 having ended a four-year wait for a ranking title in March, got on the scoreboard with a 101, but Wu registered runs of 110 and 113 in consecutive frames either side of the mid-session interval to move 4-1 up. He then fashioned a 137 in frame seven, after Higgins had taken the sixth, to reestablish a three-frame cushion and guarantee himself a lead heading into the concluding session.

Looking to build an advantage as big as he could going into the evening, Wu was left disappointed as Higgins battled back from behind in both frames eight and nine to reduce the gap to just one frame at 5-4 down. Wu would have been particularly frustrated with the final frame of the afternoon after missing a pink into a middle pocket when closing in on victory.

Despite being in front, it felt important that Wu got the opening frame of the evening’s play, and after Higgins unexpectedly missed a red in frame 10, the youngster capitalised with an 87 to put a bit more daylight between the pair.

Perhaps the biggest moment of the final came in frame 11 as Wu compiled a classy counter clearance of 43 - which included a magnificent final green along the baulk cushion - to pinch it on the black and go three clear again at 7-4 up.

Wu then crafted a decisive 80 - which was a maximum attempt before missing a double on the 11th red after going out of position - to put four frames between the contestants for the first time.

Higgins then won his first frame of the night, but Wu returned after the mid-session interval to bag frame 14 and move to the hill at 9-5 up.

Wu had a chance to realise his dream in the next frame but was punished after missing a red with the rest, but he didn't have to wait long for his crowning glory as he sank a long red from Higgins' break-off shot in frame 16 and went on to construct a 108 - his 14th century break of the tournament - to claim the title in style.

Wu is the 80th player to have won a professional ranking event title. New champions have been crowned in back-to-back tournaments on the World Snooker Tour after Jack Lisowski’s emotional maiden triumph at the 2025 Northern Ireland Open in Belfast last month.

This has been arguably the most open and unpredictable start to a top-flight snooker season ever, with nine different champions from nine competitions. 17 of those 18 finalists have been different too, with only Shaun Murphy (British Open, Xi’an Grand Prix) having reached multiple finals this term.

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