Moment of the Month: June: Wildcard Xintong makes Wuxi Last 16

At the halfway point of my countdown of the best moments of the year I take a trip back to June, when my favourite moment was Zhao Xintong the Chinese wildcard player made the Last 16 of the Wuxi Classic. Let's have a reminder of how he did it.

The reason that moment of the month for me in June was the performance of Chinese wildcard player Zhao Xintong at the Wuxi Classic was simply because for an amateur to reach this stage of a ranking event in this day and age takes a lot of talent because of the standard of play amongst the professionals, and it demonstrates the talent that this young man has at a very young age. It’s not the only time that Xintong has performed well in a ranking event doing so in both the 2013 International Championship, and the 2014 Shanghai Masters to name a couple.

In this particular event he started out by beating Andrew Norman who has had his struggles in the year and a half he’s been back on tour, to the point now where he seems to have stopped entering events. To follow that up with a 5-1 thrashing of Chris Melling in the Last 64 though was incredibly impressive as Melling is a talented player himself. He beat another very talented player in the Last 32 by overcoming Jack Lisowski 5-2 and that set up his place in the Last 16 against Shaun Murphy. Unfortunately for Xintong that is where his ran end as Shaun’s experience and class proved too much for him as he went down 5-2, but he can take an incredible amount from his consistent runs from the wildcard beating a couple of pro’s in a lot of events that he is put into now as a wildcard.

To beat three recognised players and make the Last 16 of any event is quite the challenge and for a wildcard of such a young age to do so shows a great deal of natural talent, that nurtured, coached and sent in the right direction can certainly make Zhao Xintong into the next great Chinese player and one day he could be right up there competing with the current achievements of Ding Junhui. He certainly seems to have the potential to do so, and to show us that on the big stage in a ranking event time and time again (he’s also beaten Marco Fu and Barry Hawkins in ranking events in the past) really is a brilliant moment for the game, whatever your opinion on wildcards is.

Some people feel that there is no need for wildcards and that it spoils the tournament in some ways, and while I agree with this in some ways, in other aspects it is nice for young amateurs to be given opportunities to play in ranking events in front of home crowds, and that it can unearth some really brilliant talents as it has done with Ding Junhui (who originally came to the fore as a wildcard) and Lu Haotian (who has made the final of an Asian Tour event since being on tour). Putting everything together though it’s always a great moment and a great achievement when a young amateur player rises up and impresses the snooker world with some great victories against tour pro’s and some fantastic performances along the way so all credit to Zhao Xintong for his run to the Last 16 of the Wuxi Classic, a stand out moment for the month of June.

Now that we're halfway through my moment of the month countdown it's full steam ahead to the finish line and tomorrow we'll be on to the best moment in my view of July.