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Shaun Murphy

After a bright start to the 2009/10 season, Murphy struggled to make an impact for much of the campaign and failed to reach the final of any of the six ranking events.
He nearly did just that at the Roewe Shanghai Masters, but after a sizzling start which saw him beat Michael Holt, Jamie Cope and Ken Doherty for the loss of just one frame, Murphy lost 6-5 to home favourite Liang Wenbo in the semi-finals.
After that he won just three matches in the other five ranking events, getting to the last 16 of the Pukka Pies UK Championship and the quarter-finals of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship. At the Crucible, the Sale-based cueman beat Gerard Greene and Ding Junhui, and might have gone further but lost 13-12 to Ali Carter, having led 8-4.
“It's been an average season,” he admitted. “Looking at the last frame of the match, it was a bit like my season. I had the opportunities but failed to take them.”
Murphy did grasp his opportunities, though, in two of the top invitation events. In the Premier League, he ended the dominance of Ronnie O’Sullivan, who had won the event five times in a row, by beating the Rocket 7-3 in the final.
And at the Rundili Wuxi Classic in June 2010, he made one of the great comebacks in snooker history by recovering an 8-2 deficit to beat Ding Junhui 9-8 in the final.
"It's got to be one of my best ever wins, maybe not the best, but in the top three," said Murphy. "Even at 8-2 down I never stopped believing that I could win. It's always nice to start the season with a win and hopefully I can take this form into the next event.”
Murphy’s last ranking title came at the 2008 UK Championship, as he became only the tenth player in snooker history to have won both the World and UK titles. He knocked out Martin Gould, Mark Allen, Stephen Lee and Stephen Maguire to reach the final, then got the better of a thriller against Marco Fu, taking a tense deciding frame for a 10-9 victory.
”I’ve dreamt of winning the big titles and no amount of money can buy your name on the trophy. I’ve now won the two biggest ranking events, and I hope there are more titles to come, but if there aren’t I’ll still die happy," he said.
Later that season he reached the World final, but ended up an 18-9 loser against John Higgins, thus missing out on the chance to become only the fifth player to win the World and UK titles in the same season.
Murphy rewrote snooker’s history books with his extraordinary victory at the Crucible in 2005. As the world No 48, he was the lowest ranked player ever to win snooker’s biggest title. He was also the second youngest winner, after Stephen Hendry in 1990, and the second ever qualifier, after Terry Griffiths in 1979.
His route to the final took him past Chris Small, John Higgins, Davis and Ebdon then he came from 10-6 down overnight to beat Stevens 18-16, finishing the match in style with breaks of 97 and 83 in the last two frames. Viewing figures on BBC Sport peaked at 7.8 million.
His second ranking title came at the 2007 Malta Cup when he beat Ryan Day in the final.
At the 2007 Welsh Open, in a first round match against Jamie Cope, Murphy made century breaks in each of the first four frames (135, 123, 102, 101) – the first time that had been achieved in a ranking best-of-nine match.
Recognised as a prodigious talent in his junior days on account of his exceptionally straight cue action, long potting and break-building skills, Murphy won the 2000 B&H Snooker Championship, overcoming Stuart Bingham 9-7 in the final, to earn a wild-card entry to the Masters.
Away from the table, Murphy is a fanatical golfer and plays to a single figure handicap. He enjoys reading and music and is an accomplished piano player. He has been to Zimbabwe to raise money for charity and donate clothes to children.

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