World champ Zhao Xintong says Hong Kong snooker players should move to UK to succeed
China’s newest sporting star believes his move to Britain as a teenager was a key element in his rise to the top
Zhao Xintong has said Hong Kong’s snooker hopefuls needed to live and train in the United Kingdom if they wanted to follow in his footsteps and one day become world champion.
The first Asian to win the world title, the 28-year-old believed moving from Shenzhen to Sheffield at 17 to pursue his dream of being a professional had been key to his historic victory.
Zhao, who spent three years washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant as he honed his craft, practises at Victoria’s Snooker Academy, which cultivated current world No 15 Si Jiahui and former No 10 Zhang Anda.
The facility is a 10-minute walk from Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, where Zhao became China’s newest sporting star.
It is a road well travelled. Ding Junhui, the first Asian player to reach the final of the world championships in 2016, is also based there and opened his own snooker academy in the city, which boasts graduates Xiao Guodong, Tian Pengfei and Zhou Yuelong.
Hong Kong’s players, meanwhile, tend to base themselves at the Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI), which pays 24 billiards players a monthly elite level allowance, ranging from HK$12,480 to HK$54,150, depending on performance.