Xu Si (; born 24 January 1998) is a Chinese professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

player.

Career

Xu Si first started playing snooker aged 12 at his local club in

Jieyang Jieyang () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong Province (Yuedong), People's Republic of China, part of the Chaoshan region whose people speak Chaoshan Min distinct from neighbouring Yue speakers. It is historically important as th ...

during the school holidays. After a few weeks he became determined to become a snooker player. Prior to turning professional, Xu began playing in minor-ranking Asian

Players Tour Championship The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification ...

from age 15, and his first appearance at a ranking event was in the wildcard round of the 2014 Shanghai Masters where he was whitewashed 5-0 by Ryan Day. He also made a wildcard appearance at the 2016 World Open where he defeated veteran

James Wattana James Wattana (; born January 17, 1970, as วัฒนา ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Wattana Pu-Ob-Orm'', then renamed รัชพล ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm'' in 2003) is a Thai former professional snooker pl ...

5-3 or progress to the last 64, where he lost in the next round against Daniel Wells. He made a further appearance at the 2016 Shanghai Masters wildcard round where he lost 5–1 to Michael Holt. He then won two matches at the 2016 International Championship, defeating professionals Wang Yuchen at the wildcard stage, and two-time world champion Mark Williams in the last 64 before losing to Wattana in the last 32. He lost out in the first round of qualifying for the

2017 World Snooker Championship The 2017 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 April to 1 May 2017 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 19t ...

, losing 10–5 to

Rod Lawler Rod Lawler (born 12 July 1971) is an English professional snooker player. He is noted for his slow playing style which gave rise to his nickname, "Rod the Plod". After turning professional in 1990, Lawler has reached one ranking tournament fin ...

. In August 2016 Xu won the 2016 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship by defeating Alexander Ursenbacher 6-5 after being 5-3 down. This victory earned him a two-year

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...

card.

2017/2018 season

Xu's first professional match was in qualifying for the

Riga Masters The Riga Masters or Riga Open until 2016 (also known as the Kaspersky Riga Masters for sponsorship reasons) is a Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament. The tournament started in 2014 as a part of the Players Tour Championship and was ...

where he lost 4–2 to

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stu ...

. However, in only his third tournament, the 2017 Indian Open, he beat Michael Georgiou,

Robin Hull Robin Hull (born 16 August 1974) is a Finnish former professional snooker player. For some time, he was the sole Nordic player on the game's main tour. He is known as a solid -builder, having compiled over 150 competitive during his career, a ...

, Sean O'Sullivan,

Ricky Walden Ricky Walden (born 11 November 1982) is an English professional snooker player from Chester. Walden turned professional in 2000 and it took him eight years to win his first ranking title at the Shanghai Masters. He has since won the 2012 Wuxi ...

and Dave Gilbert to reach the semi-final, where he lost to

John Higgins John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...

4–2. Xu reached the 2nd round of the

UK Championship The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican Centre, York. Ronnie O'Sulliva ...

beating Mark Davis 6–5, and also reached the 4th round of the Scottish Open and 3rd round of the Welsh Open. In the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, he lost the first match to

Chris Wakelin Chris Wakelin (born 16 March 1992) is an English professional snooker player from Rugby, Warwickshire. He practices in Bar 8 in Rugby. Career Early career Wakelin started playing snooker aged 8, when his parents Mark and Angie bought him his ...

10–4. Xu finished the season ranked 91, but was awarded the title 'Rookie of the Year'.

2018/2019 season

Xu's second season saw a loss of form. He won only 6 matches and failed to win back-to-back matches in any tournament. His best win was a highly emotional match against

Martin Gould Martin Gould (born 14 September 1981) is an English professional snooker player from Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. He has appeared in four ranking finals and won one ranking title, the 2016 German Masters. Career Gould began his profe ...

in the China Championship qualifying round, which he won 5–4 on the final black. This result allowed him to play in the main event in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong ...

, close to his hometown of

, allowing his relatives to see him play professional snooker for the first time. However, he lost to Noppon Saengkham. In the

Xu produced a magnificent display of scoring to beat Sean O'Sullivan, scoring ten 50+ breaks in successive frames to win the match 10–2. However, he could not repeat this form against

Graeme Dott Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional snooker player and snooker coach from Larkhall. He turned professional in 1994 and first entered the top 16 in 2001. He has won two ranking titles, the 2006 World Snooker Championship an ...

, losing 10–4. His ranking of 77 meant that he was relegated from the tour. In May 2019, Xu Si came through Q-School - Event 1 by winning five matches to earn a two-year card on the

for the 2019–20 and

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

seasons.

2019/2020 season

Xu's third season was similar to his second, winning only 4 matches. It came to a premature end when the COVID-19 outbreak forced the suspension of the season. Xu returned to China and did not return for the resumption in July 2020, thereby missing the

. His final ranking was 110.

2020/2021 season

For his fourth season, Xu made some technical changes, adopting the 'Sight Right' method. He also moved to the newly opened Ding Junhui Academy in Sheffield. His results were more consistent, reaching the 3rd round in the

and the English Open. In

qualification, Xu needed to win his first match to renew his professional tour card via the 1-year ranking list. His opponent was 7-times World Champion

Stephen Hendry Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...

, in the third match of his comeback. After a nervous start, Xu won the last 6 frames of the match, with five 50+ breaks, to win 6–1. In the next round he came close to beating top seed

Zhou Yuelong Zhou Yuelong (; born 24 January 1998) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He has been runner-up at three ranking events, the January 2020 European Masters, the 2020 Snooker Shoot Out, and the 2022 Northern Ireland Open. Career Between 20 ...

, but lost 6–5. He finished the season ranked 77.

Personal life

During the season, Xu Si lives in Sheffield. In the years 2017-20 he was based at the Victoria Snooker Academy, before moving to the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy in 2020. He has been described as one of the hardest workers on tour. Aside from snooker, Xu enjoys movies and playing computer games. Xu shares his birthday with fellow Chinese snooker player,

Performance and rankings timeline

;Notes

Career finals

Amateur finals: 1 (1 title)

References

External links

Xu Si
at ''worldsnooker.com''
Xu Si
at ''CueTracker.net: Snooker Results and Statistic Database''
Profile on Snooker.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Si 1998 births Living people Chinese snooker players 21st-century Chinese people