Desislava Bozhilova ended her social media absence after officiating the final of the World Snooker Championship. The 32-year-old had the best seat in the house for Zhao Xintong’s historic 18-12 win over Mark Williams on Monday.
It marked the first time both an amateur and an Asian had won the world title. And the Bulgarian couldn’t hide her emotions, taking to X in the wake of the tournament and sharing a photo of a trophy she received from the Bulgarian Snooker Federation for her work. She wrote: “Thank you so much for the kind words regarding refereeing the World Final. I loved every second of it.
“It was a pleasure to be involved in a game like that. Congratulations to Zhao Xintong on an amazing win, and also to Mark Williams for making it to his fifth World Final.”
It comes as the first time that the official has posted on the platform since sharing snaps of birthday celebrations in Vietnam back in October 2023. Born in Silven, she has made quite the name for herself since her refereeing debut at the 2012 Bulgarian Open.
Bozhilova officiated her first Triple Crown event during the 2016 UK Championship, before first gracing World Snooker Championship three years later. The referee oversaw her first Triple Crown final at the 2022 Masters, and her second at the UK Championship later that year
She also became just the second woman in history to referee a final of the World Championship this year, after Michaela Tabb, and she also became the first female to oversee the finals of all three Triple Crown events in doing so.
Zhao, meanwhile, blitzed through stiff competition including the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan to achieve his first ever World Championship – spending 29 days at the Crucible while winning 111 frames over the course of nine matches (including qualifiers).
The 28-year-old earned the top prize of £500,000 for his tournament win, while also seeing himself propelled to 11th in the world rankings ahead of his return to professional status for the 2025/26 season.
Thank you, you did a fantastic job