Shaun Murphy says he is looking forward to taking on the “ultimate benchmark” Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Champion of Champions final on Sunday after ‘The Magician’ edged past Luca Brecel in Saturday’s semi-final. Murphy, who had failed to get past the first round of the tournament on his four previous outings, found himself 3-1 down at the interval as his Belgian opponent made impressive breaks of 68, 63 and 80.
The pair traded frames to leave the scores at 4-2 before a crucial, and marvellous, break of 131 from the Englishman in the seventh frame reduced the deficit to just one. Harlow’s finest, who triumphed at the 2017 Gibraltar Open, then rattled off the next three frames to clinch a 6-4 victory and book his place in the final for the first time in his career. It was a brilliant comeback from the 35-year-old and he will now face former world number one O’Sullivan, who thrashed Anthony Hamilton 6-2 in the earlier semi-final. This will be the 15th meeting between two of England’s best and Murphy, who has only won three of those encounters, is eager to test himself again against arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport.
“Since Ronnie came on the scene in the early 90s, he has been the ultimate challenge in snooker,” he said. “He has been the ultimate benchmark for players to test themselves against and he blew the field away at the English Open last month – 98% pot success in the final and he missed only six shots in the match. “I will come tomorrow and try my best, give it everything I have got and enjoy myself. It is about forgetting everything else and just remembering we are two men having a game of snooker.” Murphy, who is priced at 25/1 to claim a second World Championship next year, is the 13/5 outsider to win the final whilst ‘The Rocket’ is the 2/7 favourite to win the tournament for the third time.
Snooker odds available at Dafabet.