WU YIZE became the second Chinese winner of the World Snooker Championship in two years, defeating Shaun Murphy in a final frame decider late on Monday night. He takes the title won last year by his compatriot Zhao Xintong, as snooker’s Chinese revolution continues apace.

At 22, Wu also becomes the second-youngest player to win the Championship, after Stephen Hendry, who won it aged 21 in 1990.

The new champion is built for this billiards game. His slight but tall frame angles across the table like a collection of custom-engineered snooker implements. Just as Erling Haaland looks like a centre forward built to specification in a football laboratory, the same could be said of Wu and snooker, but this kind of cold, mechanical description does a disservice to these sportsmen, as there is much more to them than robotic action.

Granted, a robotic, consistent cue action does help in snooker, but the mentality needed to take on the shots Wu does, and perform at the level he has reached in a high-pressure environment such as the Crucible Theatre, requires something more than good cueing.

A yellow, potted along the top cushion with the rest in frame 33, was an example of his mentality and technique combined, and the approach to the game that has made him one of the best players to watch since he turned pro in 2021.

It was an awkward shot, and if missed, could have cost him the frame and put Murphy within one of winning the Championship, but Wu had no hesitation in going for it, and potting it.

Since he joined the World Snooker Tour, Wu has steadily emerged as one of the best players among the Chinese contingent. He qualified for the Crucible in 2023 and 2025, and only missed out in 2024 due to losing a high-quality qualifier against another now top 16 Chinese player, Si Jiahui. In the past year, he has refined his game to become a genuine contender in the top tournaments.

Murphy himself is one of snooker’s entertainers, perhaps in a more old-fashioned way, but still brings plenty to the table in terms of showmanship and quality. The Englishman has performed well throughout the season. It’s been one of the best of his 28-year career in terms of his play, if not his number of titles, and he deserved to reach the final, but came up against a snooker star in the making.

It was the first final since 2002 to go to a deciding frame, and only the fourth in Crucible history — a testament to the quality of both players.

Wu’s main competitor in the coming years could be his compatriot and the winner of last year’s World Championship, Zhao. The pair have the potential to dominate the sport in the next generation, and other Chinese players could soon join them. After wondering how long it would be before there was a first Chinese world champion, two come along at once, and it surely won’t be long before we have an all-Chinese final.