ZHAO XINTONG is on the brink of making snooker history at the World Snooker Championship.
However, go back 12 months and instead of a table, the Chinese cueist was walking his dog around in a pram.
The 28-year-old after racing into a 17-8 lead.
But as he looks to become the first ever champion from Asia, Zhao’s circumstances could not have been more different.
Zhao was in the middle of a 20-month ban due – although he did not directly fix a match.
The suspension meant Xintong was stripped of his place on the professional circuit and relegated to amateur status.
He regained his place through the Q Tour and came through FOUR matches in qualifying for the Crucible.
But one year ago, Zhao was busy posting photos of his Pomeranian on .
His first photo with the pet appears to have come from October 2023 when Zhao shared a snap of himself sitting next to it, simply captioned with a dog emoji.
In posts since then, he has been seen on walks with the dog in Shanghai, , as it sported some cute yellow boots.
And last Spring as was crowned world champion at the Crucible, Zhao was sharing snaps of his fluffy dog as he took it around in a pram, including another photo of it winking at the camera.
Dog-lover Zhao has also shared photos of his pet while he jets around the globe, describing it as “super cute”;, including images of him enjoying a sunset by a lake in his homeland.
After returning to the snooker tour as an amateur, Zhao was seen cuddling his dog in a post in March.
Later on he shared photos of the pair going for a walk around and relaxing before the start of the World’s.
Zhao beat 17-7 in the semi-final to reach the final but back in May 2022 was seen enjoying dinner with the seven-time world champion as the Rocket cuddled his own dog.
The 49-year-old had said that year that his new dog had “restored my faith in life”;, so Zhao’s decision to get a dog may have been partly inspired by O’Sullivan’s glowing review.
