Zhao Xintong claims 2026 Players Championship glory

Zhao Xintong captured the 2026 Players Championship title with a 10-7 victory over John Higgins on Sunday at the Telford International Centre.

Success represents a second ranking title in a row for the Chinese star, who also claimed glory at the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong earlier in February.

Zhao becomes the first double ranking winner of the 2025/26 campaign, and the £150,000 top prize sees him rise to a career-high world ranking of number five.

Despite not being quite at his best for much of the showdown, he was still able to extend his 100% record in finals with five wins from the five title-deciding clashes he has contested at this level.

Higgins, who was attempting to become the oldest ranking event champion in the sport’s history, began the final as the clear underdog.

But he was faster out of the blocks, winning the opening couple of frames to establish an initial advantage.

Zhao responded with breaks of 62 and 61 to restore parity at the first mid-session interval, but Higgins restored his advantage with a run of 83 following the restart.

The Scot went pointless for the next two frames, however, as his Chinese opponent took the lead for the first time at 4-3 – taking the seventh with a maximum break attempt that ended on 81.

Even so, Higgins was able to emerge from the opening bout of play with the scores level, compiling a session-high break of 90.

Expectation for a grandstand finish was high when the players returned to a packed arena for the tournament’s climax.

But a protracted opening frame of the second session took almost an hour to determine a winner, which somewhat set a cagey tone for the ensuing frames.

Zhao boasted breaks of 88 and 83 but there were a lot of misses and lengthy tactical exchanges, and there was still nothing to separate them when they reached the last interval with the scores tied again at 6-6.

At the recent World Grand Prix where Zhao captured his first ranking title as a world champion, the 28 year-old produced a stunning display that included five century breaks.

He was struggling to reach those kinds of heights on this occasion, and even though Higgins was barely putting together any half-century contributions, the four-time world champion managed to seize on another mistake from his opponent to pinch the 13th frame on the black.

But after taking the next to draw things up again, Zhao finally shifted towards his top gear with the final’s first century break – an excellent run of 104 to lead 8-7.

The Crucible king made that back-to-back tons with another terrific knock of 126 to move to within the brink of glory at 9-7.

Higgins seemed to run out of gas in the final session of last month’s prestigious Masters when he ultimately suffered a 10-6 defeat to Kyren Wilson in London.

It was quite similar here, and after Zhao woke up there was no catching him – the Cyclone finishing in dominant fashion with a 92.

Zhao will head to the Tour Championship next month with the prospect of potentially winning all three events from the Players Series.

Beyond that, there will be many believing that he could be the player to finally break the so-called Curse of the Crucible whereby no first-time world champion has returned to defend the crown.

This week in Telford, Zhao proved that he could mix winning in style with winning ugly, which is an ominous sign for the rest of the tour.

Featured photo credit: WST