World Snooker Championship 2025: Zhao Xintong 'wiped the floor' with 'novice' Ronnie O’Sullivan after 'daft' decision to make mid-match cue change
Published 02/05/2025 at 17:04 GMT+1
Ronnie O'Sullivan is widely viewed as the greatest snooker player of all time, but he had a morning to forget at the Crucible on Friday as he lost all eight frames to Zhao Xintong in their semi-final. The shock session came on the back of another change of equipment. Watch and stream top snooker action, including the World Championship, live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+.
'Pure frustration' for O'Sullivan in second session against Zhao - Evans
Video credit: TNT Sports
Zhao Xintong "wiped the floor" with "novice" Ronnie O’Sullivan, who paid the price for a "daft" decision to change his tip and ferrule in the middle of their World Snooker Championship semi-final.
O’Sullivan arrived at the Crucible armed with a new cue, having not played any competitive snooker since January.
Without getting anywhere near his best form, O'Sullivan eased into the semi-finals following wins over Ali Carter, Pang Junxu and Si Jiahui.
O'Sullivan changed his tip prior to the semi-final with Zhao, and performed respectably in the opening session which finished 4-4.
Rumours swirled on Thursday evening that O'Sullivan had taken the decision to change the ferrule, which was confirmed when he arrived at the Crucible for the second session with a brass one on his cue.
The decision did not pay off, as Zhao won all eight frames to take a stranglehold on the match.
There will be plenty of talk until O'Sullivan addresses the situation, and in all probability, lots more to follow.
- Trump claims advantage over Williams after error-strewn first session
- 'He hit it about five times' - Williams commits wild foul and ref makes wrong call in crazy spell
It was the talk of the TNT Sports studio, with Alan McManus and Reanne Evans critical of the decision.
"He has changed from the titanium back to the brass ferrule," 12-time women's world champion Evans said. "It is guesswork all the time. You have to allow time for certain shots with a new tip, let alone a new ferrule.
"He has not had time to adjust, Zhao put him under pressure, and he had no time to work it out.
"It was all guesswork and Zhao basically wiped the floor with Ronnie."
/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io/2025/05/02/image-4b1027fc-cb6e-42a8-80e8-eef6c2c54ee6-85-2560-1440.jpeg)
'Immaculate snooker' - Zhao runs riot over O'Sullivan with another century in dominant session
Video credit: TNT Sports
Asked by Rachel Casey if it was a daft decision by O'Sullivan to make a change mid-match, McManus said: "In hindsight, yes.
"Even for people who are not ingrained in snooker, you will see things in O'Sullivan you will not normally see.
"You end up between the devil and the deep blue sea, it is not a nice place to be, and Ronnie, to be honest, looked like a novice."
- - -
Watch and stream top snooker action, including the World Championship, live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+
Related Topics
Thoughts?
/images.sports.gracenote.com/images/lib/basic/geo/country/flag/large/2770.png)
/images.sports.gracenote.com/images/lib/basic/geo/country/flag/large/2208.png)