Shaun Murphy believes Wang Xinzhong is the best 14-year-old he has ever seen and is ‘the future of snooker’ after an epic contest at the International Championship.
Wang is competing at the ranking event in Nanjing, China as a wildcard and began the event in superb fashion by knocking out two professionals on Sunday.
The teenager first beat women’s world champion Bai Yulu 6-4, despite Bai making the highest ever break by a woman in a ranking event, 145.
He then downed experienced professional Robbie Williams 6-1, with breaks of 97, 76 and 66 along the way.
It was then a huge step up to face reigning Masters and British Open champion Murphy, a man who won the World Championship in 2005 and has been to three more Crucible finals.
It looked likely to be going as you might expect when Murphy opened up a 3-0 lead but the 14-year-old was not to be brushed aside.
Wang won five of the next six frames, with breaks of 81, 100, 58, 105 and 74 to take a 5-4 lead and move to the brink of a huge shock.
The Magician showed his class at that point, knocking in a 72 to force a decider, where, after a re-rack, he made 89 to win the match 6-5.
It was a fabulous performance from a young star who turns 15 next month and Murphy was stunned by how good the Chinese talent is at his age.
‘I’ve never seen anything like that,’ Murphy told World Snooker Tour. ‘I was good at 14. Ronnie [O’Sullivan] was good at 14, as were many others. I think that young man may well be the best 14-year-old I’ve ever seen.
‘He has everything. I kept waiting for him to crack but he played like someone who has 20 titles and doesn’t have a care in the world. I think I’ve just seen the future of snooker. Unbelievable.
‘I turned professional at 15 so I knew you couldn’t take any liberties with anybody. Especially someone who has beaten the women’s world champion and Robbie Williams.
‘I missed two or three balls of any consequence in the whole match. I somehow found myself 5-4 down against someone playing snooker from the gods.’
Wang is still an amateur but, given his quality, looks sure to win a place on the professional tour in the near future, where he will test himself against the world’s best on a regular basis.
Remarkably, this week isn’t even the first time he has won a match in a ranking event, beating Gong Chenzhi 6-5 in the 2023 International Championship as a 12-year-old wildcard.
Murphy goes on to face Elliot Slessor in the last 32 in Nanjing after Monday’s action saw few shocks and a number of big names progress.
Ronnie O’Sullivan downed Sanderson Lam 6-2 to set up a clash with Jack Lisowski, while Judd Trump beat Matthew Stevens 6-3 to book a meeting with Noppon Saengkham.
World champion Zhao Xintong beat Fan Zhengyi 6-3, defending champ Ding Junhui downed Michael Holt 6-1 and John Higgins progressed with a 6-2 win over Oliver Lines.
Zhao has another all-Chinese clash next against Lei Peifan, Ding meets Liam Highfield and Higgins takes on Hossein Vafaei.