Shaun Murphy survives deciding frame finish against tournament substitute Ben Woollaston at World Grand Prix

Woollaston received a very late call-up to the lucrative Players Series event at the new, state-of-the-art Kai Tak Arena after Murphy's original opening round opponent, Stephen Maguire, withdrew from the tournament due to medical reasons.

Having initially not made the top 32 qualification cut on the one-year ranking list, Woollaston was the next player in line from the standings to receive an invite. And the former Welsh Open finalist got off to a brilliant start as a break of 90 won him the first frame.

Murphy - who crafted his second maximum 147 break of 2025 last week at the World Open in Yushan - responded by taking the next two frames (97 break, frame three), although Woollaston restored parity with frame four.

A 52 helped Murphy edge back in front, and the current world number 12 held a sizeable advantage in a scrappy sixth frame before a resilient Woollaston produced a brilliant 54 counter clearance to pinch it on the final black and send the encounter to a decider.

Woollaston potted the first red in the final frame, but subsequently missed the brown to a middle pocket. Murphy stepped up and fully punished, compiling a 110 to advance.

Mark Williams out of the competition in round one

Elsewhere during the opening session in Hong Kong, number five seed Mark Williams took an early exit as 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham registered a 4-2 victory over him.

Williams twice led the match early on, but Bingham won four of the final five frames and did the notable scoring as breaks of 100, 75 and 65 helped him through.

Seed numbers 16 and 17 met as Jack Lisowski defeated Zhang Anda 4-2 to progress to the last 16.

A former runner-up in this event, Lisowski went 2-0 up, but efforts of 112 and 69 aided Zhang as he drew level. However, Lisowski claimed a dramatic fifth frame on the final black before a 51 in frame six got him the verdict.

The first tie of the tournament to go to a deciding frame arrived between Chris Wakelin and David Gilbert.

Gilbert went two-nil up (73 break, frame two), but Wakelin strung together a trio of frames (81, 79) to reach the hill first at 3-2. Momentum swung again, though, as Gilbert forced the contest all the way where he won the deciding frame.

For the 2025 World Grand Prix draw and results, please visit our tournament information centre here.