After 15 days of compelling snooker we are down to the final of the World Championship where we are guaranteed quite a story when the Chinese sensation Zhai Xintong takes on the legend of the game Mark Williams.
This four-session story will unfold on the grandest stage of them all and at the end of it the man who gets to 18 frames will certainly be a very fitting champion. Both men have earned their right to compete for the trophy in what should be a cracking final.
Zhao Xintong
When it was announced that Zhao Xintong was given entry into the qualifiers for this tournament as one of the amateurs there was already talk about how much damage he could do at the Crucible Theatre. He was clearly going to be head and shoulders above anything that he faced in the qualifiers and that proved to be the case but he has been similar here at the main venue and is now one win away from winning the World Championship while technically still being an amateur, a status he loses after this match.
Xintong has breezed through the draw so far. Given the form he had going into the tournament, Jak Jones was never going to be good enough to stop the Chinese juggernaut and while Lei Peifan is an event winner this season he isn’t in the same league as Xintong as a player. Chris Wakelin and Ronnie O’Sullivan looked more daunting challenges on paper but neither showed up to compete when it mattered so it will be interesting to see what Xintong has if and when he is pushed in this final.
Mark Williams
All the rhetoric going into the tournament was that Mark Williams was struggling with his eyesight and nobody knew what he would produce as a result of that. That was clearly the case at the Tour Championship but less so here and the longer the tournament has gone on the better the Welshman has got and having taken care of the world number three and then the world number one in the two previous rounds, nobody can suggest he hasn’t earned his shot at a fourth world title at the age of 50.
Williams has come through some battles in this tournament. His epic with John Higgins in the quarter final which went down to the final black could easily have taken too much out of him but then he recovered from 7-3 down to beat Judd Trump 17-14 in the semi-final. The question is how much a man of 50 who will have played for seven straight days come the conclusion of this match has left in the tank. If the reserves are strong enough then Williams is more than capable of winning this final.
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Head-to-head
These two men have met on six previous occasions with Mark Williams having the edge at 4-2 in those outings. He is ahead 30-25 so the matches tended to be relatively comfortable to the winner. It should be noted that Zhao Xintong has won their last two meetings but due to his ban from the sport they haven’t met since 2022. The pair have never faced each other at the World Championship main draw and neither have they faced any later in a tournament than the round of 16. Williams did win a World Championship qualifier between the two back in 2017 10-7 though. That is their only multi-session match but it is a distant history so how much we can read into it remains to be seen.
Betting
I genuinely believe that this final is a 50:50 affair. When I look at a final I begin with whether we can pick holes in the form of a finalist and of the two I think you can do that with Zhao Xintong. He hasn’t faced anyone who has stood up to him yet and while that isn’t his fault, it does make me wonder what he will find if he is put under pressure or should he fall behind at any time in this final. That could easily happen given the class and the knowhow of Mark Williams.
The big question for Williams is what he has left in the tank but the longer this final goes you would imagine the adrenalin of the occasion will serve him well enough. We know Williams can play under the fiercest of pressure and he knows how to navigate a world final. We also know there are no holes in his form else he wouldn’t have beaten arguably the two biggest dangers going into the tournament in John Higgins and Judd Trump. Were Xintong to win this few would be surprised but I couldn’t go with him at 8/11 from the off. I’ll take the 6/5 on Williams.
Tips
Back M.Williams to beat Z.Xintong for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with BetVictor
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