Snooker coach knew Wu Yize could win World Championship after what he told him aged 11

2026 World Snooker Champion Wu Yize put on a stunning performance to win the title, but 11 years ago his old coach knew this is exactly what would happen.

After 15 days at the Crucible Theatre and plenty of drama, it all came down to two men and one snooker table to decide the 2026 World Snooker Champion.

In a classic battle of experience vs youth, 2005 champion Shaun Murphy faced off against 22-year-old Wu in a best-of-35 frames match for the title.

Given both men's impressive run to the final, it came as no surprise that the final was about as close as it could get, with the 2026 title being decided by a final frame with the score at 17-17.

However, after a gruelling and impressive match for both men, it was Wu who came away with the win, becoming the second youngest World Snooker Champion of all time.

But the amazing performance wasn't at all a surprise for Australian coach Roger Leighton, who worked with Wu when he was just 11-years-old at the Yushan International Billiards Academy.

“When he came to me, his highest break was 49,” Leighton told The Independent.

“After a couple of weeks, he hit an 86. I said, ‘That’s great, amazing.’ He said, ‘It’s no good, because Ronnie would have cleared up.’ That’s his mentality.

"But he was a fun-loving kid. If he missed a ball he hated it, but he laughed a lot and that was his way of releasing pressure.”

However that's not to say that Wu didn't have to work hard to improve, as Leighton revealed the one problem that the Chinese superstar struggled with at the start of his career.

“He had a few big problems with consistency,” Leighton says.

“He would miss too many easy balls.”

But, when it mattered most Wu Yize put in the performance of his life to claim the title of World Champion and take home a massive £500,000 prize for winning the match.

Addressing his opponent, Murphy said: "I'd like to be the first to congratulate Wu Yize and his family, and everyone around him for being a wonderful world champion.

"I hate being right, I said sometime earlier in the season, we had a great game out in China somewhere, and I managed to win that one.

"I came out afterwards and said that he would be world champion one day, it’s just a real shame that it was today."

Wu follows Zhao Xintong to make it the second year in a row that China has a world champion.