China’s darkish horse Wu Yize, 22, surprised British veteran John Higgins, 50, within the last to assert the 2025 World Snooker Tour Worldwide Championship title on Sunday.
Wu Yize competes in the course of the last match between Wu Yize of China and John Higgins of Scotland on the 2025 World Snooker Tour Worldwide Championship in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province, Nov. 9, 2025. (Picture by Liu Zhenrui/Xinhua)
That is Wu’s first profession rating crown, which lifted his world rating from No. 22 to No. 13, placing him inside the highest 16 for the primary time. Wu maintained robust kind all through the match, defeating 4 top-16 gamers in succession — Zhang Anda, Judd Trump, Barry Hawkins and Zhao Xintong — earlier than the ultimate.
Within the best-of-19-frame last, Wu loved a flying begin 4-1 earlier than Higgins pulled one again within the sixth body. Wu then notched a century break to increase his result in 5-2, however Higgins capitalized on errors to take two consecutive frames, ending the primary session with Wu forward 5-4.
After the interval, Wu stretched his result in 8-5. He held his nerve to safe a match level within the 14th body, however Higgins responded with a break of 53 to slender the hole. Wu sealed the victory with a 108 century within the sixteenth body to win 10-6.
“It is unbelievable, I really feel like I am dreaming,” Wu mentioned. “I nonetheless bear in mind the final time I performed towards Higgins. I used to be solely 16 then, enjoying with a wildcard and dropping to him. By no means did I believe our subsequent assembly can be on the last of this match. It feels completely wonderful.”
Higgis mentioned, “I’m so proud that I am nonetheless competing,” including that it’s a lot more durable for gamers like him to win now than it was once, as a result of they arrive up towards such high-quality gamers as of late.
