World Snooker Championship 2022 - Zhao Xintong beats Jamie Clarke to make second round

Zhao Xintong beat Jamie Clarke 10-2 at the Crucible on Sunday morning in the first round of the snooker World Championship. The 25-year-old did most of the hard work on Saturday morning, where he established a convincing 7-2 lead over Clarke, inclusive of two centuries and five 70 plus breaks in total, to put one foot into the next round. He finished the job off a day later in excellent style, blowing his opponent away in the first three frames without reply to end the tie early.

Ad/> Clarke — who had a lot to do to turn the match on its head — came out and gave it a go, but he was far from clinical enough to have any chance of catching Zhao, who continued his fine form in just his second-ever World Championship appearance. /> World ChampionshipHearn: 10 players could win World Championship but Robertson is the favourite3 HOURS AGO The promising Chinese talent stretched his lead to six frames with an 88 score, unluckily failing to reach his third century of the tie when the pink rattled out of the bottom right. In similar fashion Zhao managed to see out the 11th frame in second gear.

He lost concentration slightly as he took his eye off a simple red to the bottom right to end his break on 82, but with just one more frame needed, he didn’t seem too bothered. /> Clarke managed to get points on the board for the first time in the 12th frame, gambling everything on a long, slow red to the green pocket which dropped in. A break of 19 followed, before he left a thin cut on a red in the jaws of the bottom right.