Shaun Murphy's warning to World Championship rivals after winning Tour Championship - 'A handful for anyone'
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ByEurosport
Published 03/04/2023 at 07:49 GMT
Shaun Murphy had never won in the Tour Championship before this week, but this year he won a thrilling final against Kyren Wilson. The 40-year-old has joined Ronnie O'Sullivan and Neil Robertson as the only players to have lifted the Players Championship, the World Grand Prix and Tour Championship titles. Murphy will be considered one of the favourites for the World Championship this month.
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Shaun Murphy warns he can be a "handful for anyone" after winning the Tour Championship on Sunday to pick up his second title within five weeks.
Murphy won the tournament, considered the biggest event outside of the Triple Crown, after coming from 4-0 down to beat Kyren Wilson 10-7, and he has now picked up £150,000 in prize money.
It is the first time in Murphy's career he has won two ranking titles in the same season and his total of 11 ranking titles puts him ahead of Jimmy White in the all-time list.
Murphy, now fourth in the official rankings, believes he can take his fine form and renewed confidence into the 2023 World Championship, which gets underway on April 15.
“I am blown away, and delighted to come here off the back of the performance at the Players Championship and to win again,” Murphy said.
“The second half of the first session was pivotal, to come from 4-0 down to 4-4 gave me a massive foothold in the match.
“Around 6-6 or 7-6, I challenged myself to find another gear. The greats I grew up watching, like Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, always found something extra when they needed it.
“I have been working very hard on my game, but also myself as a person. There has been a lot of soul searching and honest conversations. I had to work on things that were painful, but it has paid off. I knew my game was good months ago, and that has taken some time to prove.
“There is one event left in the season now and I’d pay a lot of money to keep this form for another couple of weeks.
"If I can take this patience and composure to the Crucible I will be a handful for anyone.”
Murphy's final opponent Kyren Wilson was disappointed with the defeat after building up a commanding lead and believed there were two frames in the match which ultimately cost him.
“There are two frames which stick out," he said.
"I felt I was unlucky not to go 5-3 up as I had Shaun in all sorts of trouble [in a snooker on the last red in frame eight] but he made an incredible escape and put me in trouble. I was disappointed not to be ahead at the end of the first session. And tonight I missed a tricky red when I had a chance to go 7-5 up.
"Those are big frames and you need to take those chances against someone of Shaun’s class. It has been a tough time recently for my family so it has been great to have them up here with me this week.
"I had no practice coming into this event so it was a huge bonus to get to the final. Look out for me at the Crucible when I have some prep behind me.”
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