In the first round of the Shanghai Masters, Liang was narrowly beaten 4–5 by Ronnie O'Sullivan. He won five matches at the English Open, which included a 4–3 second round victory over Shaun Murphy, to reach the semi-finals.&lt;ref name="2016/17"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; From 3–4 down, Liang made breaks of 134 and 138 and Stuart Bingham made a 116 to lock the score at 5–5. Liang took the decider and then ended Judd Trump's 14-match winning streak in the final to win his maiden ranking title 9–6. He became the second player from mainland China to win a ranking event and thanked O'Sullivan (with whom he practises daily) for his help. The win also gave him entry to his first Champion of Champions where he lost 0–4 in the opening round to Mark Selby.