Fan Zhengyi has knocked Mark Williams out of the inaugural Shenzhen Open, winning their opening-round match 5-4 after Williams went in-off on the final pink.
Williams, who had been installed as the tournament’s top seed and regarded as its reigning champion following last year’s Xi’an Grand Prix, went in-off on the final pink, giving Fan the chance to complete a narrow victory and reach the last 32.
The result removes the nominal defending champion on the first day of a new ranking event which runs from 28 September to 4 October. It also alters the immediate shape of the draw in the section containing Fan, who is scheduled to face Yuan Sijun in the next round after Yuan’s 5-3 win over Iulian Boiko.
Fan takes decisive chance after Williams mistake
Fan’s 5-4 success came in a best-of-nine round-of-64 contest at the Bao’an Sports Centre in Shenzhen. TNT Sports reported that Williams went in-off on the final pink, handing Fan the opportunity to advance from a match that had reached a deciding frame.
It ended Williams’s attempt to follow his 2025 Xi’an Grand Prix title with success in the event that replaced it. He beat Shaun Murphy in the 2025 Xi’an Grand Prix final, and SnookerHQ reported that this was why he was treated as the reigning champion and awarded top seeding for Shenzhen.
That description requires some context. Shenzhen is an inaugural event rather than a tournament Williams had previously won under the same name. SnookerHQ reported that it effectively takes the Xi’an Grand Prix’s place on the World Snooker Tour calendar, making Williams the champion of the event it has replaced rather than a literal previous Shenzhen Open winner.
For Fan, the result provides a notable route through the opening stage because Williams had begun the week as the leading seed. The reports highlighted the final-pink in-off as the decisive incident.
A new ranking event with a major prize
The Shenzhen Open is the sixth ranking event of the 2026/27 campaign and the third staged in China that season, according to SnookerHQ. Its venue is the Bao’an Sports Centre, while the tournament’s total prize fund is £850,000.
| Stage | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | £177,000 |
| Runner-up | £76,000 |
| Semi-finals | £34,500 |
| Quarter-finals | £22,350 |
The winner’s cheque is £177,000, with £5,000 also available for the highest break. The round of 64, round of 32, round of 16 and quarter-finals are played over the best of nine frames, before the semi-finals move to best of 11 and the final to best of 19.
The round-of-32 match with Yuan is also scheduled as a best-of-nine contest, as are the last 16 and quarter-finals. The longer semi-final and final formats would only come into play should Fan advance through the remaining stages of the draw.
Players reaching the last 16 are due to receive £12,500, while the payments listed for the last 32, last 64 and last 96 are £8,250, £4,700 and £1,600 respectively. The prize structure gives the new event a substantial financial dimension, while Fan’s opening win has secured his place beyond the last-64 stage.
SnookerHQ reported that the qualifying phase had already been held in Leicester in July, with the top 16 seeds’ opening matches held over until the venue stages in Shenzhen. Williams was among those leading seeds, so his defeat changes the planned last-32 meeting with Yuan: Fan takes that place in the draw instead.
Elsewhere on the opening day, Judd Trump beat Huang Jiahao 5-0 and Neil Robertson overcame Liu Hongyu 5-2. TNT Sports’ listed schedule also showed Ronnie O’Sullivan level at 2-2 with Jiang Jun while that match was in progress.
Williams’s exit was a notable opening-day upset, with the top seed eliminated before the last 32. Fan took the chance created by Williams’s final-pink in-off to progress in an event carrying significant ranking-event prize money and a new place on the calendar.