Lei Peifan shocks snooker world with maiden ranking title win at the 2024 Scottish Open

This time 12 months ago, Lei wasn't even on the professional tour having been relegated from it for the second time in his career earlier in the year. Victory at the 2024 Asia-Pacific Open Championship in Australia, though, put him back into the big time for this 2024/25 season.

Surely few would have predicted Lei getting to the business end of a conventional ranking event - yet alone win one - at the start of the campaign, however, there were signs that Lei could be capable of something special after a very fruitful first half of the season that saw him win four matches in each event to reach the last 32 of both the Saudi Arabia Masters and the UK Championship. A few weeks ago at the Northern Ireland Open - the second Home Nations Series event of the term - Lei made the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time.

Lei came to this latest Home Nations stop as the world number 84 and having never been to the quarter-finals of a ranking event. He leaves the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh with The Stephen Hendry Trophy and the £100,000 top prize, a payday five times bigger that his previous highest.

The journey to Scottish Open glory for Lei began at Ponds Forge in Sheffield several weeks ago with the qualifying rounds where he squeezed past rookie Haydon Pinhey 4-3 before defeating the very experienced Dominic Dale 4-1 to reach the main venue in the Scottish capital.

In Edinburgh, Lei started with a 4-1 victory over Hossein Vafaei before surviving a gauntlet of deciding frame finishes against world champion Shaun Murphy (4-3) and Stuart Bingham (4-3) before piping last week's Snooker Shoot Out champion Tom Ford (5-4) in the quarter-finals.

In the semi-finals, Lei again showed his determination and steadiness as he turned around a 5-2 deficit to stun former world number one Mark Allen with a dramatic 6-5 post-midnight comeback win.

Sunday's title match pitched Lei against fellow 21-year-old Wu in what was the youngest ranking event final - in terms of combined age between the finalists - since the 1998 Welsh Open.

Wu - who was appearing in only his second ranking event final - began the tie as the favourite, but it was Lei who got off to a great start as he established a 4-0 lead before finishing the afternoon session 5-3 ahead.

A few hours later in the concluding session, Lei resisted his opponent's rally and took three of the first four frames on resumption to reach the hill first at 8-4 up. Wu - who will be disappointed with his overall performance in the final - prolonged the contest by depositing frame 13, but Lei got the job done in the next to become the lowest ranked player to win a ranking event title in over 31 years.

The final ranking event trophy to be lifted in 2024, Lei is the 78th different player to win a ranking event crown. He zips up 41 places in the world rankings to a career-high of 43rd and is currently very well-placed to qualify for the first two Players Series events in a few months time. He will also very likely make his Champion of Champions debut in late 2025.

For full information on the 2024 Scottish Open, including the draw, results, format, prize money and how to watch on TV, please visit our tournament information centre here.