Zhao wins first tournament since return from ban

Zhao Xintong won the UK Snooker Championship three years ago

China's Zhao Xintong has won his first tournament since returning from a ban for his involvement in snooker's biggest match-fixing scandal.

The 27-year-old beat England's Craig Steadman 4-3 in the final of the WPBSA Q Tour event in Stockholm, Sweden.

On Saturday, Zhao had made the first maximum 147 break on the amateur tour, which began in 2021 and offers two qualifying places for the professional World Snooker Tour.

Zhao was one of 10 players banned in the corruption scandal. He did not directly throw a match but was suspended for a year and eight months, reduced from two and a half years, after his early admissions and guilty plea.

He accepted charges of being a party to another player fixing two matches and betting on matches himself.

The 2021 UK Championship winner lost at the last-64 stage of a Q Tour event on his comeback in Bulgaria last month.

In Sweden, he hit eight centuries in his eight matches over three days, including the historic 147.

"I wasn't aiming to be the champion but I just wanted to get back to playing competitively," he said.

After three of the seven Q Tour events, Zhao is in second place in the rankings behind Estonia's Andres Petrov.

The eventual top-ranked player will earn a World Snooker Tour card, with the next 16 going into a play-off competition.