Zhao Beats Robertson In World Number One Battle

China’s Zhao Xintong swept to a 5-1 win over Neil Robertson to ensure he will become his country’s second world number one, in front of a delighted home crowd at the Wuhan Open. 

At the conclusion of this week’s event, Zhao will follow in the footsteps of the legendary Ding Junhui, who had two brief spells on top of the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings between December 2014 and February 2015.

29-year-old Zhao achieved snooker immortality in 2025, by becoming China’s first ever World Champion. An 18-12 win over Mark Williams in the final saw Zhao claim glory at the Crucible Theatre. That laid the foundations for his ascent to the top of the rankings.

This evening’s meeting was a straight shootout for the world number one spot, with the winner guaranteed to reach snooker’s summit. Current world number one Judd Trump suffered a 5-1 defeat at the hands of Chang Bingyu this afternoon. That means the Englishman’s reign, which began following the 2024 Xi’an Grand Prix, is guaranteed to end following Saturday’s final.

At the beginning of this week there was a five-way battle for top spot, with Trump, Zhao, Robertson, Wu Yize and Mark Selby all in contention. As Zhao is the last man left standing in this event, he is now set to become snooker’s 13th world number one.

Zhao took the first two frames this evening, thanks to breaks of 106 and 91, before Robertson claimed the third to remain in touch at 2-1. A tight fourth frame saw Zhao crucially clear the colours to steal on the black and lead 3-1 at the mid-session.

When they returned, he powered over the line with breaks of 113 and 54 to secure victory. He now faces Xiao Guodong in the semi-finals, knowing that whatever happens he will end the event on top of the snooker world.

“Before the match, I had a rough idea about the situation. A lot of fans had mentioned it to me, and I had also seen some of the comments. They said that this match was a battle for the world number one spot. But to be honest, personally, I didn’t really think about it that much. However, when I went 2-0 up against Neil Robertson, I did feel a little bit of a wobble inside,” said six-time ranking event winner Zhao.

“At the moment, I probably haven’t really had the chance to fully take it in or savour it. I think after tomorrow, I’ll probably start to feel it more. Becoming world number one was definitely one of my dreams when I was growing up. Even now, after winning some ranking titles and becoming more settled mentally, I feel like being world number one isn’t necessarily my ultimate goal. But for a professional player, it’s certainly a very rare and special honour, so I’m extremely happy.”