Masters snooker 2021 – 'A bit embarrassed' - Shaun Murphy after fluke-stunner combo v Mark Williams

Shaun Murphy confessed he was a “bit embarrassed” after a fluke teed up a brilliant frame-winning pot during his first-round win over Mark Williams at the Masters.

Leading 2-1 against the three-time world champion, Murphy needed the final pink and black to pinch the fourth frame in the best-of-11 encounter.

He attempted a safety shot on the pink towards the baulk cushion, only to send it into the top right corner, and then followed it up with a magnificent black down the other end of the table.

“I couldn’t see a shot,” Murphy said in the Eurosport studio. “I played to knock the pink up and down towards the black, but I got it completely wrong.

“And then I’m sort of looking at the black thinking, ‘well… this is even harder to play a safety shot, I may as well go for it. I’ve just potted one like it’. I was a bit embarrassed to be honest.”

Murphy, who went on to beat Williams 6-4, will face Stuart Bingham in the quarter-finals.

“I went in for the interval to have a coffee, there’s a little players’ lounge behind the media centre, and I walked through and got a bit of stick off the lads in the media centre,” he added.

“As I say, the pink was a complete mistake, but I meant the black.”

Eurosport pundit Neal Foulds admitted it was possible Murphy made back-to-back flukes, given how impressive the shot on the black was.

“I’m thinking because you fluked the pink, you could have fluked the black,” he said, with Murphy standing alongside him.

“If I had also fluked the black in your position, I never would have been able to admit to that. But I believe he means it… It was incredible black, it was just a bizarre end to a frame.”