Zhao Xintong completes historic Players Series hat-trick after dominant Tour Championship triumph

Reigning world champion Zhao becomes the first player to have claimed the World Grand Prix, Players Championship, and Tour Championship titles - all parts of the Players Series triumvirate - within the same professional campaign.

The £150,000 winner’s purse pushes the 29-year-old’s tournament earnings for the current 2025/26 term to over £1 million, and he moves up to a career-high of world number four.

With this being his first full-time season back on the professional tour, Zhao will soon be in contention to become the sport’s world number one for the first time.

Zhao comfortably defeats world number one Trump

Their first meeting in a top-flight final, it was Zhao who took control early on as breaks of 64 and 68 helped him build a 2-0 lead.

However, 31-time ranking event winner Trump - who was in his fifth final of the season, and going for his second trophy - got on the scoreboard via a run of 61 in frame three before levelling up at 2-2 going into the first mid-session interval.

On resumption, though, Chinese ace Zhao strung together the next three frames for a 5-2 advantage - capitalising with efforts of 91 and 98 in the sixth and seventh after his opponent unexpectedly missed a red in each.

In what felt like a very important final frame of the afternoon, both contestants botched opportunities, but it was Trump who cliched it on the colours to stay in touch at 5-3 down.

However, when they returned a few hours later for the evening’s concluding session, Zhao came from behind to deposit the opening frame on the pink, and then left his opponent pointless in the next as he opened a four-frame buffer for the first time that day at 7-3.

A 63 break got Zhao near a winning position in frame 11, but he failed to obtain position on a red. Trump dug deep to get back into it, but his hard work was undone with a poor safety on the final red, as Zhao sank it from distance and went on to take another frame.

‘The Cyclone’ then chalked up frames either side of the final mid-session interval against a struggling Trump, wrapping up a comfortable victory with a 51 clearance.

Following one-sided wins earlier in the week over Chris Wakelin (10-4) and John Higgins (10-1), Zhao has dropped only eight frames en route to the trophy. Across this Players Series, it’s a perfect record of a dozen wins - 12 from 12.

This is Zhao’s sixth career ranking title - four have come within the last 12 months - and he goes up to joint-17th on the all-time list of decorated champions tied with Ken Doherty, Stuart Bingham, and Ali Carter.

He maintains his 100% win rate in professional finals - he’s now seven from seven.

In an eventful World Snooker Tour season that has yielded 15 different winners from 17 ranking events, Zhao is the only cueist who has multiple ranked crowns to his names - now with three.

If you include the Riyadh Season Championship title from November - his first success since his Crucible glory - Zhao has four trophies to his name from the term. Mark Selby has three (UK Championship, and the invitational Champion of Champions and Championship League titles).

With the sport’s blue riband event coming up - the 2026 World Snooker Championship qualifying rounds start on Monday - Zhao has installed himself as the outright favourite to successfully defend the world title and break the Crucible Curse.

As per tradition for the current title holder, Zhao will play and complete his first round match at the Crucible on the opening day of the TV stages on Saturday 18th April.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 Tour Championship, visit here.