Shaun Murphy nearly breaks Ronnie O'Sullivan's world record in extraordinary Xi'an whitewash win

Murphy, who is going for back-to-back ranking event titles having recently won the British Open, crafted breaks of 74, 141, 133, 84 and 84 again in one of the most dominant victories you’ll ever see.

In total throughout the match, September 2025 Player of the Month Murphy outscored world number two Wilson by 533 points to 6. Wilson did not pot a single ball, with his six points coming from a foul from his opponent with the last shot of the tie.

It meant that Murphy strung together 533 points without reply - very nearly setting a new all-time world record.

The two were facing each other for the first time since their ‘fallout’ during and after the Masters final in January.

Ronnie O'Sullivan currently holds the record for the most unanswered points in a professional snooker match. 'The Rocket' put together a sequence of 556 points during his memorable 6-0 clean sweep of Ricky Walden in the quarter-finals of the 2014 Masters at the Alexandra Palace in London. O'Sullivan went on to win the prestigious invitational tournament.

Unlike Wilson, at least Walden was allowed to pot a few balls in the opening frame, scoring 39 points before being frozen out.

Whilst Murphy was just 23 points shy of that record, he was only 14 points short of the record for the most unanswered points in a ranking event match. He had a chance to eclipse both, but snookered himself on the final red and ended up hitting the pink whilst trying to escape from it.

That ranking event accolade remains with Stuart Bingham who fashioned 547 points without reply during his 5-3 victory against Sam Baird in the last 64 of the China Open in Beijing.

On that day, Bingham came back from 2-0 down, and during his record run he constructed century breaks in three consecutive frames.

Englishman Murphy will face the winner of the match between Oli Lines v Ding Junhui in Saturday's last eight.

Elsewhere during the afternoon session at the Qujiang Athletic Center in the Far East, Gary Wilson also recorded a 5-0 win as he dismissed He Guoqiang.

Three-time ranking event winner Wilson took the opening frame before fashioning runs of 84, 101, 117 and 89.

The world number 17 is aiming to reach consecutive finals in China having made the title match at the Wuhan Open at the end of August where he was pipped to the title by Xiao Guodong who retained the crown.

World number 47 Daniel Wells clearly loves playing in Xi'an. A semi-finalist here last year at the inaugural staging of the £850,000 world ranking event, the Welshman has gone deep again, booking a quarter-final berth after a 5-2 win over Robert Milkins. Wells racked up efforts of 59, 82, 80 and 50.

20-year-old Liam Pullen has broken new personal ground as he defeated Aaron Hill 5-1 to reach his first ranking event quarter-final.

The English youngster - who grew up alongside compatriot Stan Moody in the junior ranks - made breaks of 52, 86 and 62 as he set up an encounter with Wells. He has guaranteed himself at least £22,350 in prize money, well over double his previous highest payday.

Pullen began his campaign at the qualifiers in Leicester last month where he eliminated John Higgins 5-3. At the main venue this week, Pullen has seen off Michael Holt 5-3, Noppon Saengkham 5-0, and now Hill.

The remaining four last 16 fixtures will be played in the evening session in China (12:30BST start time).

Visit our 2025 Xi’an Grand Prix tournament information centre here for details on the draw, results, prize money, schedule and how to watch.