Shaun Murphy narrowly averts famous shock defeat to 14-year-old amateur at the International Championship

Recently crowned British Open champion and Xi'an Grand Prix finalist, the in-form Murphy had to win the final two frames against the youngster to keep on track at the £825,000 world ranking event in Nanjing, China and avoid what would have been a big upset.

Teenage talent Wang was one of four local wildcard selections from organisers in this year's tournament.

Involved in the only preliminary round match of the event, on Sunday, Wang overcame reigning world women's champion Bai Yulu, 6-4. This was despite Chinese compatriot Bai constructing a total clearance of 145, the highest break ever made by a woman player in a professional competition.

A few hours later, Wang came back to play in the first round proper where he saw off his second professional player of the day, registering runs of 97, 66 and 76 in dispatching world number 53 Robbie Williams, 6-1.

Returning on Monday, Wang faced a step up in class against current Masters champion Murphy who was playing his first match of the main venue stages having won a first round/qualifying tie in Sheffield a few weeks before.

Aiming for back-to-back finals in China after being defeated by Mark Williams in Xi'an last month, the match was going to the form guide as breaks of 50 and 102 assisted Murphy to a 3-0 lead.

Wang battled back, though, as he registered runs of 81, 100 and 58 in winning three successive frames and levelling up at 3-3.

A 77 helped Murphy edge back in front, but efforts of 105 and 74 put Wang ahead for the first time at 5-4 up, and on the cusp of a memorable victory.

However, Murphy would eventually deny the junior as he made a 72 to force a deciding frame where a 89 put his name through to Tuesday's last 32.

Next up for newly-engaged Murphy is a meeting with world number 23 Elliot Slessor who produced breaks of 141, 101 and 103 during a 6-5 victory over Belgian youngster Ben Mertens earlier in the day. Slessor had to win the final two frames to advance.

For a summary of Monday’s action at the South New City National Fitness Centre, visit here.

This run from Wang isn’t the first time that he has featured on the World Snooker Tour. At this event two years ago, a 12-year-old Wang defeated fellow amateur wildcard Gong Chenzhi- a cueist who is now a professional - 6-5 in a preliminary round tie before bowing out 6-0 to Judd Trump in round one.

Xinzhong’s older brother Xinbo - who is 17-years-old - was also in this year’s tournament. He lost 6-4 to the in-form Zhou Yuelong in the first round, but did craft a break of 141.

Wang has scored wins over top flight opposition in recent seasons whilst competing as a wildcard in Chinese professional events, against Ben Woollaston (2023 International Championship), Matthew Selt (2024 World Open), and Robbie Williams at this season’s Wuhan Open.

Xinzhong wasn’t the only 14-year-old to win a match in this year’s International Championship; rookie professional Michal Szubarczyk from Poland defeated Ishpreet Singh Chadha 6-4 in qualifying/round one in England before losing 6-0 to 2023 champion Zhang Anda in the Far East.

Visit our tournament information centre here for details on the 2025 International Championship including the draw, results, schedule and how to watch.