I will try next year to be world champion.’ Zhao whitewashed Yan to win the German Masters title (Picture: Eurosport) He got his hands on a trophy again the following month at the German Masters ...

Zhao was tipped by many to break into snooker's elite after winning the 2021 UK Championship and 2022 German Masters. But his career was paused in June 2023 after he was banned for 20 months for ...

He had only recorded one victory in the whole of 2025 and had pulled out of the Welsh Open and the German Masters at the last minute in the run-up to the championship. Nevertheless, he comfortably ...

before adding the German Masters a few months later. He is an amateur in name only – being reduced to that status as he returns from a 20-month ban for match-fixing. It bears repeating that he ...

However, he is no ordinary amateur player, having already won the UK Championship in 2021 and the German Masters a year later, while he was previously ranked as the sixth best player in the world.

Ranking points are based on money won by players. Zhao, a former UK champion and German Masters winner, banked £500,000 for his victory over Mark Williams. Clarifying Zhao’s situation ...

Yuan swiftly bounced back from relegation during Covid, and last season won back-to-back deciding frames over Mark Allen and Neil Robertson en route to the semi-finals of the German Masters.

Zhao did eventually follow up such early promise by winning the UK Championship and German Masters during the 2021-22 season to rise to sixth in the world rankings, but we now know rather more ...

He won the UK Championship in 2021 and the German Masters in 2022, but his burgeoning career was abruptly stopped when he was one of 10 players from China sanctioned in 2023 following an ...

To me he's the nearest thing to Stephen Hendry." Zhao's 2021 UK Championship win and his 9-0 demolition of Yan Bingtao in the 2022 German Masters final sprang him to prominence as he fired his way ...