I see both sides.
We say this every year, but it bears annual repetition. In life, there are few things – or people – or divinities – on which we can rely never, ever to disappoint us. But the World Snooker Championships are one such, and the last fortnight has bestowed upon us another jazzer.
That’s not to say it’s the same vibe every year, far from it. Once upon a time, this tournament confirmed the identity of the best player in the world – Steve Davis through the 80s, Stephen Hendry the 90s – but now, though Judd Trump has dominated the last few years, he’s won this trophy only once because he standard is so high anyone in the field can beat anyone else in the field.
As such, we’ve had six different world champions in the last seven years, three of them first-time winners. It’s unlikely many, if any of us, expected to spend the bank holiday weekend obsessed with Zhao Xintong v Mark J Williams.
Which is to say that nowadays, our tournament does still confirms the identity of the best player in the world, but only during these last two weeks. In theory, this is a lesser outcome – our players come and go, so don’t represent our family heritage in the way our teams do – but in practice, even individual sport isn’t solely about facts, rather about people and their stories, which exist in thrillingly inexhaustible supply.
In any case, it doesn’t really make sense to say Mark J Williams comes and goes, given he first contested a final in 1999, then picked up the pot in 2000. Except it also kind of does, given he was set to quit the game in 2018, disgusted by the waning of his considerable powers. But his wife, Jo, persuaded him to continue, he miraculously, affirmingly, snaffled the title for the third time, and since then has re-established himself as part of the elite, a one-off technician with a unique snooker brain, and one of the greatest big-match temperaments we’ve ever seen – in any sport. Already an indisputable great of the game, a fourth biggun would take him level with John Higgins and Mark Selby in the all-time list and make him the oldest world champ ever; what honours those’d be.
Standing in his way, though, is a redemption tale of mythological proportions. Zhao Xintong exploded into our consciousness in 2021-22, winning the UK Championships followed by the German Masters six weeks later. His long-to-mid-range potting was barely believable in the ferocity of its accuracy, so too his coruscating calm … and then, in 2023, he was suspended pending a match-fixing investigation, eventually receiving a 20-month ban for being party to another player fixing two matches and betting on matches himself. No, it wasn’t pretty; yes, he was young.
Since returning to the game, Zhao has devastated almost everything in his path – most recently Ronnie O’Sullivan – and arrives at this final in sensational form. But Mark J has made a career out of extinguishing exactly that, so turn on the telly, draw the curtains, and for the next two days, shut out everything that isn’t this. You’ll not regret it.
Start: 1pm BST