It’s undoubtedly the biggest win of the young Chinese competitor’s short professional career so far.
Lei Peifan took full advantage of a misfiring Neil Robertson to cause a big upset at the Gibraltar Open on Wednesday in Milton Keynes.
The 17 year-old, who has been on the Main Tour since the beginning of last season but boasts only a handful of match victories overall, compiled a break of 80 and three more above 50 to overcome the Australian 4-2.
Lei was the runner-up at the World Under-18 Championship in both 2017 and 2018 before emerging from the 2019 Q School as a tour graduate.
Wins have been difficult to come by during his debut stint as a professional but the youngster did beat Gary Wilson in the German Masters qualifiers before Christmas, and he now has an even bigger scalp to build momentum on.
Lei will face amateur Dylan Emery in the next round after the up-and-coming Welshman took advantage of his late spot in the line-up by beating Ben Hancorn 4-0.
For Robertson, the world number three would have entered the Gibraltar Open looking for a confidence-building performance, but he has now just won one match since his UK Championship glory at the start of December.
Meanwhile, former Gibraltar Open champion Stuart Bingham secured a comfortable 4-0 triumph against Gerard Greene to set up a meeting with Jimmy White in the last 64.
Ryan Day, the winner in 2018, wasn’t so impressive and suffered a 4-3 reverse against countryman Jak Jones.
Recent Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown was also denied in a decider in a lengthy fixture that eventually saw Rod Lawler progress at the Northern Irishman’s expense.
Defeat for Brown means that only Judd Trump and Mark Selby can top the European Series this weekend and collect the £150,000 bonus.
Elsewhere, Ali Carter took advantage of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s withdrawal to see off the challenge of John Astley, while Jamie Wilson hammered Hamim Hussain – the replacement for Players Championship winner John Higgins – in a whitewash display.
Pang Junxu added another impressive win to his standout rookie campaign, coming from 3-0 down to deny Igor Figueiredo.
Lu Ning and Tian Pengfei were other winners from China as the first round neared its conclusion at the Marshall Arena.
Among the others to progress beyond the opening hurdle were Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Anthony McGill, Anthony Hamilton, and Alan McManus.
The last 128 finishes on Thursday morning before the second round finally gets under way.
Live coverage is on Eurosport and various other platforms around the world.
Click here to view the full draw. (Scheduled times in CET)
Featured photo credit: WST
