Zhao Xintong planning big change to his game for first time in 15 years

Zhao Xintong is looking to ditch the cue he won the World Championship title with and has used for nearly 15 years, in a bid to improve his game.

The Cyclone reached the top of the world rankings for the first time last month on a run to the Wuhan Open final.

That continued a brilliant spell for him, which saw him win the World Championship in 2025 and then three ranking events in the first half of 2026.

His game looks in very good shape, but he wants to improve and reckons his cue is holding him back.

The final in Wuhan was won 10-7 by Chang Bingyu and was not the break-building extravaganza that some expected, with no centuries made over 17 frames.

Zhao felt he was hampered by the heat and humidity, feeling his cue can’t handle those kind of conditions anymore.

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Even in Cheltenham on Wednesday when he beat Daniel Wells 4-2, he felt sweaty conditions in a warm arena held him back.

‘Because my cue is very old,’ Zhao told Metro of a testing final in Wuhan. ‘If I play in some bad weather, like in China it was so wet and my cue is too sticky. Just like today, I can’t play well.

‘I want to change my cue, I’ve been trying to find a cue for nearly half a year because if I play my cue in the bad weather, I can’t play well.

‘I’ve had it for nearly 15 years. I just want to change the cue now.’

With four half-centuries to his name in defeat to Chang, Zhao felt he was a long, long way from his best.

‘When I played Chang in the final, I think I was just 20-30 per cent of myself,’he said. ‘I tried my best, but also congratulations to Chang for winning the tournament.’

The Wuhan Open was the third of three events in the ‘China swing’ which took the World Snooker Tour to the country for around five weeks.

The move has come in for some criticism from Shaun Murphy and Judd Trump for being too long a stretch in China, but unsurprisingly, Zhao did not have the same complaint.

‘I liked that!’ Zhao enthusiastically said about the spell in China. However, he added that he is comfortable playing wherever snooker takes him.

‘We are Chinese players and we like to play tournaments in China, but if I’m back to the UK to play three tournaments, I can do it and I like that,’ he said. ‘We are professional snooker players and we need to do the rules of WST.

‘I just feel alright with everything. If we do one in China and one in UK. I just try to enjoy the snooker, it’s the same for everyone, so I’m ok.’

Zhao is back in action in the last 32 in Cheltenham on Thursday against Michael Holt.

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