Shaun Murphy completed a dominant 10-0 win over Luo Honghao in the first round of the World Snooker Championship on Monday morning in Sheffield.
In doing so, the Englishman becomes only the second player to inflict a whitewash scoreline on an opponent at the Crucible Theatre.
John Parrott was the last to achieve the feat, 27 years ago when he thrashed Australia’s Eddie Charlton at the same stage.
The latter’s countryman Neil Robertson had actually the first crack during the 2019 edition to join the history books but lost the tenth frame en route to a 10-1 triumph over Michael Georgiou on Sunday.
Murphy’s 10-0 win included an impressive four century breaks in the opening session, in addition to runs of 76 and 62.
Luo, who was making his debut appearance at the Crucible this year after emerging from the difficult qualifying tournament last week, had only a few opportunities but spurned them all.
The teenager’s points tally of just 89 is also the lowest to ever be recorded during a Crucible encounter.
A triple Crucible whammy for the unfortunate Luo Honghao: only the second player to be whitewashed, lowest ever points total (89) and lowest ‘highest’ break (25)
— David Hendon (@davehendon) April 22, 2019
Murphy, who has endured an awful season by his standards after several early exits from ranking events, was ruthless as he sealed the final frame with a break of 59 at the outset of the second session.
The 2005 world champion advances to the last 16 where he’ll meet Robertson – the pair having dropped just a single frame between them so far.
Also in action on day three is three-time world champion Mark Selby, with the Leicester man facing another young Chinese prospect in Zhao Xintong.
Later, tournament favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan begins his quest for a sixth World Championship title against amateur James Cahill.
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