Zhao Xintong won on the Q Tour for the third time on the trot with victory over Ryan Thomerson on Sunday in Austria.
The Chinese cueist scored breaks of 123, 101, and a tournament-high contribution of 142 to beat the Australian with a 4-2 scoreline in the final.
Zhao, who returned from his betting-related ban in September, has now won 24 matches in a row on the feeder amateur circuit.
Earlier at the National Training Academy in Vienna, Zhao beat Steven Hallworth in the last 16 before fighting back from 3-0 down to deny Matthew Glasby in the quarter-finals.
Zhao made breaks of 102, 99, 82, and 62 to hammer Sean O’Sullivan in the penultimate round and then saw off the challenge of Thomerson.
Victory at Q Tour 5 comes soon after he emerged with the silverware at Q Tour 3 in Stockholm and Q Tour 4 in Manchester.
The 27 year-old is now in prime position to end the Q Tour rankings in first place, which would secure him an automatic ticket back to the main tour.
Prior to his ban, Zhao had been considered the most promising young player in the game.
He won the 2021 UK Championship and backed it up a couple of months later with a second ranking title at the German Masters.
Zhao was invited to participate at the recent edition of the UK Championship on the back of his success on the Q Tour.
Beginning in the first of four qualifying rounds, he went all the way to York where he was narrowly beaten in the first round by Shaun Murphy.
With his latest Q Tour triumph, he looks certain to be mixing it with the pros on a more regular basis again from next season.
Q Tour Event 5
Selected Results
Last 16
Zhao Xintong vs Steven Hallworth
Matthew Glasby vs Joshua Thomond
Sean O’Sullivan 4-3 Iulian Boiko
Patrick Whelan 4-2 Andres Petrov
Ryan Thomerson 4-3 Mateusz Baranowski
Liam Highfield 4-1 Oliver Sykes
Asutosh Padhy 4-3 Umut Dikme
Hayden Staniland 4-1 Aaron Busuttil
Quarter-Finals
Zhao Xintong 4-3 Matthew Glasby
Sean O’Sullivan 4-1 Patrick Whelan
Ryan Thomerson 4-1 Liam Highfield
Hayden Staniland 4-0 Asutosh Padhy
Semi-Finals
Zhao Xintong 4-0 Sean O’Sullivan
Ryan Thomerson 4-2 Hayden Staniland
Final
Zhao Xintong 4-2 Ryan Thomerson
European Q Tour Rankings
1. Zhao Xintong – £9,000
2. Dylan Emery – £4,100
3. Ryan Thomerson – £3,900
4. Andres Petrov – £3,600
5. Craig Steadman – £3,100
6. Ryan Davies – £2,800
7. Sean O’Sullivan – £2,100
8. Steven Hallworth – £2,000
9. Harvey Chandler – £2,000
10. Liam Highfield – £1,800
Click here to view the full Q Tour rankings
(snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WPBSA
