Artemijs Žižins

Artemijs Žižins (2 June 2006) is a Latvian professional snooker player. He earned a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour starting with the 2024–25 snooker season. He is the first ever professional player from Latvia.

Career In 2022 he became European U16 champion defeating Liam Davies in the semi-final and Moldovan Vladislav Gradinari in the final.

In June 2023, shortly after turning 17 years old, Žižins defeated five-time champion Rodion Judin 5-2 to claim his first Latvian National Snooker Championship.

In March 2024, he reached the semi-final of the EBSA European Under-18 Snooker Championship where he was defeated by eventual champion Bulcsú Révész of Hungary.

2024/25 In May 2024, he entered European Q School and recorded victories over former professional Iulian Boiko of Ukraine, and a 4-2 win over Mark Joyce. In the final round he beat Kayden Brierley to win a two-year place on the World Snooker Tour starting from the 2024-25 snooker season.

In July 2024, he recorded a 5-3 win over Robbie Williams in qualifying for the 2024 Xi'an Grand Prix. He reached the third round of the 2024 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, in which he was defeated by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. In the previous round, he scored a 137 break in a deciding frame victory against Xu Si. At the 2024 English Open in Brentwood in September 2024, he reached the round of 64 with wins over Duane Jones and Robbie Williams. He also qualified for the 2025 German Masters, achieving a 5–4 win over Englishman Matthew Selt.

2025/26 In June 2025, he was drawn to make his season debut in the first round of qualifying for the 2025 Wuhan Open where he defeated He Guoqiang of China 5-1. In the qualifying round for the 2025 British Open, he was building a 147 break when he missed the 14th black, in a 4-2 defeat to Bai Yulu. He was drawn in the round-robin stage of the 2025 Championship League against Si Jiahui, Farakh Ajaib and Kayden Brierley, winning all three matches with the loss of only one frame, to top the group.

In qualifying for the 2025 UK Championship, he defeated Cheung Ka Wai 6-3 with a top break of 133, before winning 6-4 against Ali Carter but then narrowly missing a place in the last-32, with a 6-5 defeat to David Lilley. He reached the last-64 of the 2025 Scottish Open with a win over Jimmy Robertson before losing to former world champion Stuart Bingham.

In March 2026, he reached the last-16 of a ranking event for the first time at the 2026 World Open, which saw his ranking rise to a career-high world no. 68.

2026/27 At the start of the 2026-27 season, Zizins beat David Lilley to set up a match against reigning World Champion Wu Yize at the 2026 Wuhan Open, which he won 5-4 on 24 August for the biggest win of his career.

Performance and rankings timeline Performance Table LegendLQ lost in the qualifying draw#R lost in the early rounds of the tournament(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)QF lost in the quarter-finalsSF lost in the semi-finalsF lost in the finalW won the tournamentDNQ did not qualify for the tournamentA did not participate in the tournamentWD withdrew from the tournament NH / Not Held means an event was not held.NR / Non-Ranking Event means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.R / Ranking Event means an event is/was a ranking event.MR / Minor-Ranking Event means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.

Career finals Amateur finals: 5 (4 titles) Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final ScoreWinner 1. 2020 Baltic Snooker League - Event 2 Vilius Schulte-Ebbert 4–1Runner-up 1. 2022 Latvia Amateur Championship Andrej Pripjoks 0–5Winner 2. 2022 European Under-16 Championship Vladislav Gradinari 2–1Winner 3. 2023 Latvia Amateur Championship Rodion Judin 5–2Winner 4. 2024 Latvia Amateur Championship (2) Andrej Pripjoks 5–3