Pick up the signal at 8
Zhao was born in the Chinese city of Xian, but as a child, moved to the metropolis of Shenzhen, just above the border of Hong Kong, when his parents went there to work.
Only child, he first interested in snooker at the age of eight, after seeing tables settle outside small shops near his home.
As his interest increased, his parents put a snooler table in one of the rooms in their house and made it its practice room.
However, they were skeptical about his sports ambitions and wanted him to study.
In 2015, a teenager Zhao told a documentary that he wanted to be a Chinese snooker Ding Junhui.
Ding, the so-called Chinese snooker grandfather, won the British championship three times and the Masters in 2011.
In the 2015 documentary, entitled “becoming Ding Junhui”, Zhao's mother remembers: “I asked him, when you have finished the university, what work will you do?
“He said:” Play snooker “. He said it very firmly, he didn't need to think about it.”
She said it was the moment when she decided to fully support her decision to make her life snooker.
Recognizing the support of his parents, Zhao said: “I am the luckiest child in the world of snooker.”
The same program includes a ringing approval by Ding's father, calling Zhao his “favorite” player and a “rare” talent.
Roger Federer from Snooker
Through his adolescence, Zhao beat professionals in exhibition matches, Williams among them.
The left -hander followed the Chinese players track in Sheffield, where he played the Victoria's Snooker Academy, led by Victoria Shi, a 10 -minute walk from the Creuset.
Directed Zhao's enormous potential, Shi asked Snooker the Grand Ronnie O'Sullivan to lend a hand in mentoring. English has forced, practicing and dining with Zhao, passing tips.
“He could be the greatest of all time with his talent, his ability – I always say that he is Roger Federer with a benchmark of snooker in his hands,” said O'Sullivan in 2022, as the South China Morning Post reported.
