Zhao Xintong Thrashes Trump 10-3 to Complete Historic Players Series Sweep

No player in snooker history had ever claimed all three Players Series events in a single season. Zhao Xintong, 29, did it by dismantling the world's best player on a Sunday afternoon at Manchester Central, beating Judd Trump 10-3 in the final of the Sportsbet.io Tour Championship to complete a sweep that began with the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong and continued at the Players Championship in Telford, both in February.

The £150,000 first prize pushed Zhao's season earnings past €1 million and lifted him to a career-high world ranking of four. It was his fourth title of the 2025/26 season, and his seventh professional final without a defeat.

Trump, the world number one, was visibly undermined by a malfunctioning new cue tip throughout. He briefly levelled at 2-2 after trailing by two frames, but Zhao's response was clinical: breaks of 91 and 98 carried him to a 5-3 lead at the interval, and the evening session produced no revival. Trump was candid about his own culpability. "I'd have been better off using the spider or something like that," he said on Channel 5. "But it is my own fault for turning up with a tip like that." He was equally generous in defeat about the man across the table: "Zhao is a great player, the best in the world over the past few months, and is going to be around for a long time. It is up to me and the other players to start playing well against him, otherwise he will win 100 tournaments."

Zhao, speaking after his victory, acknowledged the occasion's weight. "This is a big moment for me. Judd Trump is my favourite player. I am really happy and lucky that tonight I am the one that has won. It may look easy but actually I was very nervous." The win followed an equally one-sided semi-final: Zhao had beaten defending champion John Higgins 10-1 on Saturday, the heaviest defeat in the four-time world champion's 34-year professional career. Trump reached the final via a 10-4 win over Neil Robertson.

The broader context for this dominance runs deeper than a single season. Zhao emerged from government-backed sports academies in Shenzhen that produced a generation of Chinese professionals trained from childhood, not casually in local clubs. The 2026 World Grand Prix, which Zhao won by beating Zhang Anda 10-6 in the final in Hong Kong, illustrated the scale of that pipeline: a record nine mainland Chinese players reached the last 16, six advanced to the quarter-finals, and all four semi-finalists were Chinese, a first at any ranking tournament.

The broadcast economics reinforce why the World Snooker Tour has moved events to Hong Kong and engaged in discussions about eventually hosting the World Championship in China. An estimated 150 million people in mainland China watched Zhao win the 2025 Crucible title, with the final simulcast across CCTV-5, Huya, and Migu. Title sponsor Sportsbet.io is attaching its name to a tournament whose Chinese audience has become central to the sport's commercial proposition. UK-based tours are adapting accordingly: the World Grand Prix's relocation to Hong Kong last season was a direct response to that market's growth, with the Billiard Sports Council of Hong Kong co-organising the event alongside the World Snooker Tour.

Zhao's own path to dominance remains one of sport's more extraordinary stories. He served a 20-month ban for his role in snooker's largest match-fixing scandal before returning as an amateur in November 2024, winning four qualifying rounds and then defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan 17-7 to reach the Crucible final, where he beat Mark Williams 18-12 to become the first Asian player ever to win snooker's blue riband event.

With the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield beginning April 18, Zhao faces the prospect of defending that title just 13 days after completing his Players Series sweep. Trump and Zhao sit on opposite sides of the draw, leaving open the possibility of a final rematch. On that challenge, Zhao was measured: "I know it's very difficult, but I'll be trying to get it back.