Does snooker have its Luke Littler moment? Perhaps not on these shores – that came when Alex Higgins emerged like a hurricane in the Seventies – but, at a global level, this promises to be equally seismic.
Zhao Xintong, a player nicknamed the Cyclone, has become China’s first world champion, in front of a television audience in his homeland of more than 100 million. After completing his winning break, Zhao draped himself in the red and gold China flag for a hugely symbolic moment in snooker history that has been promised ever since Barry Hearn had the vision to take Steve Davis and his stable of players to the Far East some 40 years ago.