Article #18361

• Wu claims title 18-17 with decisive break of 85

• The 22-year-old is the second-youngest champion ever

As the ticker tape rained down on Wu Yize and the Chinese flag was draped over the shoulders of snooker’s newest superstar as he clutched the game’s most famous prize, it was hard not to imagine that this sport was changing in front of our eyes for ever.

If Zhao Xintong broke through the glass ceiling for 12 months ago, then the exploits of the China’s newest Crucible king may have just shattered it into a thousand pieces. The boy who came to England with his father as a 16-year-old to pursue his dreams, living in a windowless flat in Sheffield, is now the champion of the world.