Latest news with #VictoriaShi
The Sun
08-05-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Zhao Xintong hints at how he'll spend £500,000 World Snooker Championship prize money despite manager's warning
SNOOKER's new world champion Zhao Xintong has hinted at the luxuries he might splash some of his £500,000 winnings on. But the manager of Asia's first ever Crucible king warned the Chinese star she will "tell him off" if he "enjoys" spending it too much. 4 Zhao awed fans and pundits with the manner in which he defeated three-time world champ Mark Williams 18-12 in the final. The 28-year-old made history by doing so as an amateur AND a qualifier. He only returned to competitive action last September following a 20-month ban over match-fixing offences. Zhao has now given his first suggestion of where a sizeable chunk of his prize money could go. And fittingly the items could potentially be seen while he's in action. Zhao told the South China Morning Post he's not yet sure what he'll purchase. However, he added: "But I do like watches - different brands, too." On the one hand, wristpieces could be a stylish investment. But on the other, they could take Zhao close to being in hot water with manager Victoria Shi. The Express report Shi as saying: "Let him enjoy [the prize money]. "But if he enjoys it too much, I will tell him off. "He is the first Asian world champion, and that is huge. "But it is my job to make sure he stays grounded." It's unclear if Shi's firm advice is based on any past examples. But Stephen Hendry famously questioned the lavish spending of Luca Brecel following the Belgian's 2023 Crucible triumph. Brecel's performances went downhill from an exciting peak as fast as did his bank balance - and he himself has lamented some of his extravagant buying. He said: "I went from a millionaire to a non-millionaire," Brecel reflected on his lavish expenditures. "It was a conscious decision to buy the cars and maybe feel that bit of pressure again, to recreate the feeling I had of just starting my career. "I didn't go lazy, but I just didn't feel that hunger or motivation going from tournament to tournament. "I don't like that feeling, and I had to change something... It's not a good mindset to have." That followed seven-time world champ Hendry claiming last year that Brecel had been wasting his "undoubted talent". The Scot said last year: "What I'm questioning is what he's doing with his career. "You can say it's a tough sport, but you've got to give the game a bit of respect." - - 4
Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
China is ready to take over snooker thanks to a talent factory in Sheffield
You would miss it were it not for the small sign on the outside which simply reads 'Victoria Snooker'. The 'V' is rather artistically made up of snooker cues and we are in a Sheffield street just a 10-minute walk from snooker's Crucible home, which is otherwise used as office space by local businesses. Yet this is where the new world champion Zhao Xintong has based himself for most of the past decade and, alongside the nearby Ding Snooker Academy, is home to much of the best Chinese snooker talent. Zhao started playing aged eight on tables outside some shops in Shenzhen before persuading his parents – a nurse and a doctor – to buy a small table in their home where it would be 'half practice, half study'. He played at an academy in Beijing – one of 300,000 snooker clubs in China – but Sheffield does ultimately remain the finishing school for most of those Asian players trying to take their place on the main snooker tour. Victoria Shi, after whom the Victoria club is named, is also Zhao's manager and mentor. Shi was the first person to join Zhao on the Crucible floor when he clinched his 18-12 victory over Mark Williams on Monday and immediately handed him a People's Republic of China flag. Backstage at the Crucible later on Monday, Shi was in no doubt that this is just the start of an even bigger story. Asked whether she had seen potentially better young Chinese players than Zhao, and how many more Chinese world champions there would be over the next decade, she twice simply replied: 'Too many.' Just as in sports like table tennis, diving, shooting and badminton, where China won 20 Olympic golds last summer, she emphasised the country's capacity to relentlessly hone a technical skill. The sleek but minimalist inside of the Victoria Snooker Academy is certainly a far cry from the boozy smoke-filled snooker halls that were once the breeding ground of the best British players. 'In China they all play at seven years old – they practise 10 hours a day,' Shi says. 'Chinese people work hard. Snooker is already so popular in China, but now, you can't imagine how big it will be. He is a sports icon, the first Asian world champion. That's huge.' Si Jiahui, who reached the world semi-final two years ago and was beaten by Ronnie O'Sullivan in this year's quarter-final, and Zhang Anda, who is ranked 12th in the world, also play at the Victoria Snooker Academy. Yan Bingtao, who won the Masters in 2021, previously practised there but, with Zhao, was among 10 Chinese players suspended in 2023 as part of snooker's biggest-ever match fixing investigation. Zhao was not found to have thrown matches himself but admitted to placing bets for Yan through another Chinese player. Yan is still serving his five-year ban while Zhao completed his 20-month suspension only last September, before winning four qualifying matches to reach the Crucible. Shi, who prides herself on the all-round care and guidance that she gives the Chinese players, says that she was in tears when Zhao and Yan's involvement came to light. 'For two months, it was like I was sleepwalking,' she told the snooker journalist Phil Haigh in April 2023. 'I was angry. I constantly told them how stupid they are. They've been with me since day one, I thought I knew everything about them. I always told them not to mix with the wrong crowd.' Her advice to Zhao once he returned remained blunt. 'I told him, 'You didn't kill anyone, you didn't lose your arms and legs, you made the biggest mistake of your life, so learn from it and make yourself a stronger person',' she now says. 'If he enjoys it too much, I will tell him off' And Shi does believe that Zhao has emerged stronger. 'Now my job is to make sure he stays grounded,' she says. 'They come from so far away and they are [often] only children. Snooker is a hard game. You have to be special mentally and you have to give them support, 100 per cent, off the table to make them settled. If they are happy off the table, they are happy on the table. 'If I haven't seen them for a few days, I will ask: 'Why haven't I seen you?' It is like with normal kids. I want them working hard. He [Zhao] practises for six or seven hours a day. He is in Sheffield for eight or nine months of the year because of training hard and the events. Let him enjoy this… but, if he enjoys it too much, I will tell him off.' Jason Ferguson, who is the chair of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, said that the crowning of a first Chinese world champion was among the most seismic moments in snooker history. The BBC television audience peaked above three million for Monday's final but that was rather dwarfed by in excess of 100 million watching in China. 'I think Xintong has the potential to become the richest earning snooker player in the history of the sport,' Ferguson says. 'The size of the market is huge and, when you see the association of the brands who want to partner with snooker, it has endless potential. He's won the biggest amateur tour in the world. He then entered the qualifiers as an amateur. To then go all the way at the Crucible is nothing short of a miracle.' Ferguson believes that Zhao's victory will also advance snooker's efforts to be recognised in the Olympics and Paralympics. 'Snooker in China is treated like any national sport,' he says. 'The size of snooker now… [and] how important China is to the International Olympic Committee, someone has to look at this today and say: 'This is now snooker's time.' 'I do think Australia [the Brisbane Games of 2032) is a realistic target. That's the one game-changing opportunity because it will open up every country to say they need to invest.'
The Independent
06-05-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
World champion Zhao Xintong's manager will not let spending splurges wreck dream
Zhao Xintong is on course to become the richest snooker player in history – but his no-nonsense manager insisted she would not allow any spending splurges to wreck his dream of winning multiple 'triple crown' titles. The 28-year-old Zhao beat Mark Williams 18-12 to clinch both the illustrious crown and a cheque for £500,000, watched by an estimated 150 million television viewers in his homeland. Zhao's prize money potential is set to be dwarfed by lucrative endorsements heading his way, but Victoria Shi, who runs the Sheffield academy where he has trained since first arriving in the UK in 2016, is determined to keep a tight grip on his spending plans. 'Let him enjoy it, but if he enjoys it too much, I will tell him off,' said Shi. 'He is the first Asian world champion and that is huge. But it is my job to make sure he stays grounded.' Zhao's win was all the more remarkable for the fact that he battled through four qualifying rounds, having only returned to the tour in September following a 20-month ban for his part in a match-fixing scandal involving 10 Chinese players. Having swept to the UK title in 2021, there had been fears that Zhao's ban could wreck the career of a player who had been picked out by the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Jimmy White as a prospective star of the future. Shi, whose academy is also home to other top Chinese stars – including others who were handed heftier bans in the match-fixing investigation – revealed how she convinced Zhao to put the controversy behind him and make a fresh start. 'I told him, you didn't kill anyone, you didn't lose your arms and legs. You made the biggest mistake of your life, now learn from it and you will become a stronger person,' added Shi. 'I think he is stronger because of it.' Zhao will head home to China to show off the trophy this week and revel in a triumph that has been a long time coming, since China's original snooker trailblazer Ding Junhui won the first of his three career UK titles in 2005. However, Ding came up short at the Crucible, and when China's other major winner, Yan Bingtao, the 2021 Masters champion, was banned until 2027 for his part in the match-fixing affair, there were real fears that China's love affair with the sport – and its lucrative earning potential – could have peaked. Jason Ferguson, chairman of the sport's global governing body, the WPBSA, has long championed the growth of the sport in China and helped established a post-Covid calendar which this season boasted a total of six major or ranking title events in the country, including Hong Kong. Ferguson said of the match-fixing scandal: 'Things like that are going on in all sports and it's how you manage it. It's a disaster when it first happens but we've soon returned to the China market. 'We've worked alongside the players to make sure the same mistakes don't happen again. We're highly confident the sport has come through this and I can only see it going forward.' Ferguson is excited by the young prospects at both Shi's and Ding's Sheffield academies, who are already showing signs of being able to emulate Zhao, with 14 Chinese players inhabiting the end-of-season world rankings, all but three of whom are under the age of 30. 'I think Xintong has the potential to become the richest snooker player in the history of the sport,' added Ferguson. 'That's quite a bold statement when you think about the titles players like Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan won. 'But the size of the market is huge and when you see the association of the brands who want to partner with snooker, it has endless potential. 'This is one of the biggest occasions snooker has ever seen. We've seen the growth in the China market and we've seen the size and scale of grass-roots development underneath that. 'To see a world champion returning to China as a national hero is only really going to send the sport to another level.'
