Gao Yang beat Brian Cini 5-3 to capture the 2025 WSF Championship title on Saturday in Morocco.
By emerging with the most prestigious title on offer by the World Snooker Federation, Gao will receive a two-year card to compete on the professional main tour.
The 20 year-old from China also becomes the first player to do the WSF double, having previously won the junior crown in 2020.
After suffering disappointment in last year’s WSF Championship final where he was thrashed 5-0 by Cheung Ka Wai, Gao went one better on this occasion.
He gets a second crack at the World Snooker Tour, which he’ll be able to participate on during the upcoming 2025/26 and 2026/27 campaigns.
Gao enjoyed professional status between 2020 and 2022 on the back of his victory at the WSF Junior Open.
Still only a teenager at the time, positive results were difficult to come by and he quickly dropped off the tour.
But he will be better equipped to handle the challenges this time with more experience and another prestigious international amateur trophy in his locker.
Gao reached the knockout stages of the 2025 WSF Championship with a perfect record of four wins from four games in the initial round-robin phase.
A couple of 4-0 victories then helped him through to the last 16 where he beat Patrick Whelan 4-1.
Gao compiled a terrific 140 century break in his subsequent 4-2 success over Stuart Watson and repeated that scoreline in a semi-final defeat of Fergal Quinn.
In the final, he trailed Maltese opponent Cini 2-1 but managed to win four out of the following five frames to seal success in the tournament.
In addition to gaining promotion to the World Snooker Tour, Gao will also be invited to compete in this year’s World Championship qualifiers in Sheffield.
Ireland’s Leone Crowley won the WSF Junior Championship last week while Mink Nutcharut triumphed in the WSF Women’s Championship.
2025 WSF Championship
Selected Results
Last 16
Brian Cini 4-2 Daniel Womersley
Umut Dikme 4-3 Fung Kwok Wai
Mateusz Baranowski 4-3 Kevin Hanssens
Barry Pinches 4-3 Ashley Hugill
Stuart Watson 4-1 Ian Martin
Gao Yang 4-1 Patrick Whelan
Fergal Quinn 4-3 Ong Jia Jun Jaden
Florian Nuessle 4-1 Zhou Jinhao
Quarter-Finals
Brian Cini 4-0 Umut Dikme
Mateusz Baranowski 4-0 Barry Pinches
Gao Yang 4-2 Stuart Watson
Fergal Quinn 4-3 Florian Nuessle
Semi-Finals
Brian Cini 4-0 Mateusz Baranowski
Gao Yang 4-2 Fergal Quinn
Final
Gao Yang 5-3 Brian Cini
Featured photo credit: WSF
Gao’s previous highest ranking was 72.
I’m very pleased Gao Yang has made it back. He first qualified by winning the WSF Junior in 2020 aged just 15. Naturally, it took him some time to adjust, but his results steadily improved. He missed some tournaments, including the German Masters because he was too young to enter the country (COVID restrictions). Ultimately, he was relegated by just £500 when two amateurs overtook him on the 1-Year list in the final rounds of the World Championship qualifiers. I don’t agree with this rule, as amateurs and professionals are playing with different pressures, and it’s always possible for someone to get a favourable draw in the World Championship with the largest prize-money available. The purpose of the rule is a provide a safety net for professionals who had a bad season (such as a tour rookie) and improved in the next, to allow them to continue their improvement. After that, Gao narrowly missed returning several times, through WSF and Q School. Despite winning a qualification event, he was debarred from playing in the Shanghai Masters, which evidently wasn’t open to former professionals (he was still just 18), and some other CBSA events. It’s been a tough route for a very naturally talented player. Let’s hope the 3 missed years haven’t impacted his development too much.
He’s still very young. The fact that he has overcome those near misses will surely stand him in good stead moving forward.
It’s a pity for Brian Cini, though. It would have been good to have a Maltese player on the tour again.
Yes, Brian Cini played very well. Before the event, I had him at #219 in the world – higher in fact than Gao Yang who has stagnated during his time in the wilderness. The question for Brian is whether he can perform consistently at that level, in which case he would absolutely be a candidate for a place on tour.
The last winner of the World Amateur to have a big impact on the pro circuit was 2014 champion Yan Bingtao.
Ray Edmonds and former firefighter Gary Owen, who I think knew my grandad, are the only players to win it twice.
That would be the IBSF World Amateur Championship that you’re speaking of, which still takes place but has very limited prestige nowadays as it isn’t a pathway onto the main tour. Pankaj Advani and Muhammad Asif are three-time winners of that event.
Si Jiahui won the WSF Championship in 2022, so I’d say he is the most recent to have an impact from an international amateur event that has provided promotion to the WST.
Yes, got a little mixed up with the two events! A pity to see the old World Amateur Championship diminished as the roll of honour is incredibly distinguished.
The WSF event lacks a good length final in comparison.
Si Jiahui is the only winner so far to have made an impact in the professional ranks.
I meant to say Edmonds and Owen were the only players to retain the title. I’d not factored in how many players had won in total. Advani seemed to ultimately favour billiards from what I can remember.
Yes, Pankaj Advani won the IBSF Amateur Snooker Championship in 2015 but declined the tour card, citing the expense of moving to the UK (he reckoned £30k per year at that time). He decided to concentrate on billiards, where he is still one of the best players in the world. Ultimately the defeated finalist in 2015 was given the tour card instead: Zhao Xintong. Pankaj also won in 2003 and 2017.