Only four players have managed to defend the World Snooker Championship title at the Crucible Theatre.
That’s the level of exclusivity that reigning world champion Zhao Xintong is trying to emulate over the next 17 days in Sheffield.
Steve Davis did it. Stephen Hendry did it. Ronnie O’Sullivan did it. Mark Selby did it.
Four all-time greats who dominated their eras and conquered the sport’s most demanding stage in back-to-back campaigns.
Nobody else has managed a successful repeat since the tournament moved to Sheffield in 1977, and that context alone underlines the scale of the task facing the defending champion this year.
It’s why the so-called Curse of the Crucible refuses to go away. No first-time winner has ever returned to successfully defend the title, with all of the game’s biggest names falling short at their first attempt.
Zhao, however, isn’t arriving in Sheffield as just another defending champion hoping to buck the trend.
He comes into the 2026 edition in a rich vein of form, having dominated in recent months and through establishing himself as the standout player of the year so far.
After a relatively slow start to the 2025/26 campaign, the Cyclone from China found form at the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship invitational in November, beating Neil Robertson in the final.
Several months later he was clean sweeping the Players Series events – claiming a hat-trick of ranking titles at the World Grand Prix, the Players Championship, and the Tour Championship.
That he has produced those moments of victory while not necessarily always playing at his brilliant best is what makes his 2026 Crucible bid so intriguing.
On paper, his title defence begins in relatively kind fashion. Zhao has been paired with the lowest-ranked qualifier Liam Highfield in the first-round Crucible draw, a match he will be strongly expected to win.
Yet the Crucible has a habit of quickly stripping away any sense of comfort.
The margins are fine, the pressure is relentless, and momentum can shift in an instant.
A potential second-round meeting with Ding Junhui, who many thought would be China’s first world champion before Zhao rewrote the script a year ago, would immediately raise the stakes.
Several other dangerous names lie in wait including a possible quarter-final bout with Shaun Murphy. Robertson, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and John Higgins each also lurk in the top half of the draw.
History is uncompromising with only four players having ever gone back-to-back at the Crucible, but there is no sense of him clinging on or trying to rediscover last year’s form.
If anything, he looks stronger now – more complete, more confident, and more accustomed to winning on the biggest stages.
If the Curse of the Crucible is ever going to be broken, it feels like it will take a player performing at exactly this level, and maybe a few of the right stars to align along the way.
Whether all that proves to be enough is another question entirely.
But if top seed Zhao Xintong does go all the way again, it won’t just represent a successful title defence.
It would place him alongside Davis, Hendry, O’Sullivan, and Selby in one of the most exclusive groups the sport has ever known.
And it would finally lay one of snooker’s most enduring narratives – that pesky curse – to rest.
Featured photo credit: WST
Hi Dave
Can u speak on the reasons of the difficulty of back to back?
I dont subscribe to the crucible curse
I just think its hard as heck to do for anyone
Like u mention only 4 ever did it
Hendry and davis multiple times in diminant eras
Ronnie dominated alot of snooker yrs but ‘only’ went back 2 back with a year off in between
Even selby was dominant for large parts of the 2010s decade but ‘only’ went back 2 back once
What specifically makes it hard to go back to back when theres no first time pressure ‘crucile curse’ your a mutli world champ and all time great ?
Even higgo won 3 in 5 yrs but never back 2 back
Willo never got close
Trump
Robbo
Murphy
These guys are long standing 1x champs so back 2 back was never in the question for them
The longer format makes the World Championship the ultimate test, making consistency throughout the tournament even more important. Plus aside from the Davis/Hendry eras, there have generally been a lot of title contenders every year. This year, you could make a genuine case for a dozen or so players winning it. That level of competition makes going back-to-back far less likely.
Thanks dave
With the worlds being the ultimate test of consistency
Which of the qualifiers do u think can go furthest in the tournament
Can’t say that I really fancy any of the qualifiers going far this year. But if I had to choose one, I’d probably go for Zhang considering how well he played in the qualifiers and the section of the draw he is in. Allen is a tough opening opponent though of course.
Hello everyone, considering there have been 21 tournaments this year excluding the Champions League Winners Group, only Zhao Xintong achieved back to back wins with the
03-02 to 08-02 Hong Kong 2026 World Grand Prix and the
17-02 to 22-02 England 2026 Players Championship
Plus the Players Series (3 tournaments sweep).
I suppose those results could be seen as about 12 players have a valid chance at any given tournament and that isn’t 100 percent because there were 3 or 4 players that were outside the top 12 when they won. Back to back in any form is really tough. I know Xiao Guodong won back to back Wuhan Opens by winning it in 2024 and 2025.