Yan Bingtao: Ronnie O’Sullivan winning at 46 is ridiculous, I will have finished with snooker by then

Yan Bingtao is aiming for plenty of years at the very top of snooker, but does not expect to be around for as long as Ronnie O’Sullivan and the rest of the Class of 92.

At just 22 years old, Yan has accomplished a huge amount, winning the World Amateur Championship at just 14, the World Cup at 15 and his first ranking title at the 2019 Riga Masters aged 19.

This was all trumped by winning the 2021 Masters, beating John Higgins in the final and really announcing himself as a force at the very top of the sport.

Dubbed a future world champion, he enjoyed his best run at the Crucible this year, narrowly losing to Mark Williams in the quarter-finals, but even in defeat he enjoyed the World Championship.

After two years of disruption due to the pandemic, the Crucible was back to ‘normal’ this year and, despite feeling the nerves, Yan loved the experience.

‘I think this year, for me it is the real World Championship,’ Yan told Metro.co.uk. ‘The last two years I’m in the top 16 to play the World Championship, but because of Covid there’s not many people in there.

‘This year was the real World Championship. I was very nervous, there’s a lot of pressure, I can’t sleep the night before, but I was enjoying it on the table.’

The Tiger pulled off a couple of great wins in Sheffield, notably beating defending champion Mark Selby 13-10 in the second round, which included the longest frame in Crucible history at 85 minutes.

‘I was just feeling so tired, we had a very long frame!’ Yan said. ‘Everybody knows how difficult it is to beat Mark Selby at the World Championship, best of 25 match, he’s defending champion.

‘I just knew I need to give him trouble and put him under pressure. Last season I beat Selby three times before the World Championship,