Freshly becoming the first Chinese player to win the Snooker World Champion Zhao Xintong is watching more titles, hoping that his constant success will inspire a new wave of talent in China.

28-year-old Lobsternicknamed “Cyclone”, provided a Victory 18-12 over the triple winner of Wales Mark Williams At the Crucible theater at Sheffield on Monday, capturing a tremendous journey through unrest and redemption.

Zhao’s triumph sent ripples across China, as millions greeted a big progress on the sport. He is one of the five Chinese players to finish the season in the top 20 places.

“I realized that my victory is important for the Chinese Snooker,” Zhao told China’s Xinhua state news agency in an interview published on Tuesday.

“I believe I can win more tournaments in the future to attract more people to get involved in this sport. I will refresh myself and look forward to a whole new start of my career.”

Zhao was detained for 20 months in January 2023 after a scandal of matching the sport that rocked the sport, the consequences of which would say he was classified as an amateur at the championship event and had to spend four rounds of qualification to reach Crucible – a wild run in the title that began on April 7.

“I did something wrong and learned from it, but I never lost faith in myself. I continued to practice as usual and followed closely Tour,” Said Zhao.

“I never thought about leaving snooker but back to stronger.”

Zhao said he was worried about being able to match the intensity in major events and had not been waiting to enter the World Championship.

“After all, I haven’t played in high -class tours for a long time … I was happy to be able to reach the final stages and present on the crucible.”