Shaun Murphy delivered what he described as ‘among the finest’ performances in his profession to decimate Kyren Wilson.
Murphy whitewashed Wilson 5-0 of their last-16 conflict on the Xi’an Grand Prix.
However the rating did not fairly inform simply how completely dominant Murphy’s show was.
In opposition to Wilson, final yr’s world champion, Murphy got here agonisingly near setting the file for scoring essentially the most unanswered factors in snooker historical past.
What file did Murphy virtually broke?
Murphy, dubbed ‘The Magician’, piled on a staggering 533 factors with out reply from Wilson.
The absurd tally of unanswered factors positioned him third on the all-time record.
Ronnie O’Sullivan boasts the file having scored 556 unanswered factors towards Ricky Walden on the 2014 Masters, whereas Stuart Bingham sits second on the leaderboard with 547 towards Sam Baird on the 2016 China Open.
Murphy may and maybe ought to have had the file all to himself, however he opted towards it.
Within the last body, ‘The Magician’ snookered himself on the final purple and selected to snick the pink, handing Wilson the one factors he gained all match.
Wilson’s brother, Taylor, remarked to The Solar that Murphy’s efficiency was ‘snooker from the gods’ and ‘type that deserves trophies.’
As for Murphy, he struggled to cover his jubilation after the victory however was nonetheless stunned he managed to carry out on the stage he did.
“That is just about nearly as good as I’ve ever performed,” Murphy mentioned.
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“I feel that is among the finest best-of-nine matches I’ve ever been part of.
“It is mad, you play so many matches all over the world for all of your life, and each from time to time it comes collectively, all of the hours of observe from being a toddler, all of it comes collectively on one little session, and you’ve got a burst like that.
“In fact, the greats – Ronnie O’Sullivan, the John Higgins’, the Mark Williams’ – have been doing it for years, each from time to time, folks like me do it a bit of bit.
“It was nice in the present day. I knew I needed to play properly towards Kyren. He is an ideal champion, the defending champion right here, however I did not anticipate to play that properly.”
Commenting on Murphy’s utter dominance, TNT Sports activities commentator David Hendon remarked: “No file, however what a rare efficiency.
“Kyren Wilson was utterly shut out. He did not get a look-in the entire match till that foul on the finish. They’re the one factors he scored, a rare show from Shaun Murphy.
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“The British Open champion, hoping to win back-to-back rating occasions, he is in a golden spell of type.”
Murphy, the fifteenth seed, faces Chinese language star Ding Junhui within the quarter-finals.