The professional snooker player who refused to make a century break

A promising table tennis player in his youth, Fan decided to focus his future ambitions on the green baize, enjoying a brilliant junior and amateur career as he won titles and made plenty of big breaks.

In 2017, he reached the final of the Asian Under-21 Championship in India where he was denied the title by current main tour player Yuan Sijun.

Just a few months later on home soil in Beijing, a 16-year-old Fan recovered from 5-2 down in the final to oust compatriot Luo Honghao, 7-6, to win the World Under-21 Championship. The achievement allowed Fan to turn professional for the first time the following year.

There is so much for a rookie professional to think about, especially those so young, and ‘overseas’ cueists who need to leave their homes to live on the other side of the world for big spells throughout the year. On top of this, Fan had also been pondering about something else.

The teenager had the bizarre ambition of wanting his first century as a professional player to be a maximum 147 break.

Should he be on a sizeable sequence in a frame but couldn’t compile a maximum, he would deliberately avoid making the ton.

This unique aspiration very nearly came true, though. During his opening round match at the 2021 World Championship Qualifiers in Sheffield against Zak Surety, Fan sank 12 reds with blacks before agonisingly rattling the 13th red into the yellow pocket with the remaining balls all in ideal positions. The break, therefore, ended at 96.

Having got pretty close to perfection and a slice of unusual snooker history, Fan decided to abandon his maximum-making idea the following season, which would be a very significant one for him indeed.

During a 2021 Northern Ireland Open round of 64 match with Jack Lisowski at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Fan registered his maiden century break as a professional - an effort of 128 - during the fifth frame of his 4-2 defeat.

Only a few months later, Fan became one of the unlikeliest ranking event champions, ever, when as the world number 80, he won the 2022 European Masters at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.

En route to the final, Fan won six consecutive matches, including a 5-4 victory over Kyren Wilson in the last 32. However, he was a huge underdog for the title match as he faced the most decorated ranking event winner of all time, Ronnie O’Sullivan.

There would be a fairy-tale ending to Fan’s amazing run, though, as besides losing the opening frame, he never trailed ‘The Rocket’.

The opening session ended 4-4 before Fan began the evening’s play by fashioning centuries in back-to-back frames. The 21-year-old kept getting pegged back by O’Sullivan, and the contest went all the way, but in the biggest match of his life, Fan produced a tournament-clinching effort of 92 in the deciding frame to win 10-9, collect an £80,000 purse, and become the fifth Chinese player to claim a ranking title.

During the first season that Fan decided to start making century breaks, he scored 11, five of which came at the European Masters.

At the time of writing, Fan has racked up over 60 tons on the World Snooker Tour, with two of those being maximum 147 breaks. He made the first 147 of this record-breaking season for snooker perfection back in July at the Championship League.

During his self-exodus from the century break list, Fan talked about his 147 vision in an interview on a Chinese blog, addressing the mixed reaction it may receive: "A century is just a number. I simply didn't finish some shots; it didn't affect my opponent, the match, or the referee. I genuinely didn't disrespect the sport of snooker."