Shaun Murphy just missed out on breaking a long-standing snooker record as he thrashed Kyren Wilson 5-0 in the Xi’an Grand Prix on Friday.
The recent British Open champion was in scintillating form as he reeled off one big break after another to bagel last year’s winner of the ranking event.
Breaks of 74, 141, 133, and 84 saw Murphy quickly seize control at the mid-session interval, and he duly added a second 84 contribution upon the restart to complete the rout.
But while the display was one of the finest of the season so far, there will be a modicum of regret for Murphy that he couldn’t clear the table in the final frame.
Leaving Wilson potless for the entire game, Murphy had extended his unanswered points tally to 533, which was just 23 points shy of the record Ronnie O’Sullivan set way back at the 2014 Masters.
Murphy snookered himself on the final red and ultimately couldn’t orchestrate a miracle shot to keep the break going.
Even so, the 43 year-old is in tremendous form at present and looks like one of the very best players in the world once again.
“That’s pretty much as good as I’ve ever played,” 13-time ranking event winner Shaun Murphy told the World Snooker Tour.
“That’s one of the best best-of-nine matches that I’ve ever been part of. It’s mad, you play so many matches around the world throughout your life, and every now and then it comes together.”
“Every now and again, all the hours of practice from being a child, it all comes together in one little session. You have a burst like that.
“Of course the greats like Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins and Mark Williams have been doing that for years.
“Every now and then, people like me do it a little bit. It was great today – I knew I had to play well against Kyren, who is a great champion, the defending champion here.
“But I didn’t expect to play that well. I played a good safety in the first and that was it, he broke off in the second, similar in the third, similar in the fourth, and similar in the fifth.
“It was just a mad day. You put all the hours of practice in for moments like that. I’ll do exactly the same for my match tomorrow, and I’ll probably play rubbish. It’s a mad game.
“Whether it’s the best I’ve ever done it, I’m not sure. But it’s up there. I had that spell a few years ago of winning the Players [Championship] and winning the Tour [Championship].
“I think the work I’ve been doing with Peter [Ebdon] between events and at events is starting to kick in. Once you get that little bit of confidence and self-belief, then anything is possible.
“I didn’t know the exact number, but I knew I was close [to the record]. You could see as I was trying to clear up in the last frame, I was trying to get to the last red.
“I was gutted not to have a shot at it, because I knew the record must be close. The chance to break that record happens so infrequently.
“I was trying everything, but even as the Magician I couldn’t pot that red.”
Murphy will face either Ding Junhui or Oliver Lines when the quarter-finals of the 2025 Xi’an Grand Prix take place on Saturday.
Gary Wilson, Liam Pullen, and Daniel Wells have also reached the last eight of the campaign’s sixth ranking event.
Later on Friday, the remaining round of 16 affairs will be held with fan favourites Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ding Junhui back in the fray.
The Rocket encounters Jak Jones while Ding plays Oliver Lines, with Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham facing Barry Hawkins and Lyu Haotian respectively.
2025 Xi’an Grand Prix
Round of 32 (bo9)
Kyren Wilson 5-2 Yuan Sijun
Shaun Murphy 5-4 Wu Yize
Elliot Slessor 4-5 Oliver Lines
Louis Heathcote 3-5 Ding Junhui
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-0 Stephen Maguire
David Lilley 3-5 Jak Jones
Gary Wilson 5-4 Mateusz Baranowski
He Guoqiang 5-4 Neil Robertson
Matthew Stevens 4-5 Lyu Haotian
Stan Moody 0-5 Stuart Bingham
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 2-5 Barry Hawkins
Zhou Yuelong 2-5 Mark Williams
Liam Pullen 5-0 Noppon Saengkham
Mark Davis 1-5 Aaron Hill
Daniel Wells 5-3 Si Jiahui
Jimmy Robertson 4-5 Robert Milkins
Round of 16 (bo9)
Kyren Wilson 0-5 Shaun Murphy
Oliver Lines vs Ding Junhui
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Jak Jones
Gary Wilson 5-0 He Guoqiang
Lyu Haotian vs Stuart Bingham
Barry Hawkins vs Mark Williams
Liam Pullen 5-1 Aaron Hill
Daniel Wells 5-2 Robert Milkins
Click here for the updated draw and results (snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
When Shaun has these purple “spells” it’s clear why he’s called the magician.
He was also 14 points shy of the ranking event record of 547 unanswered points set by Stuart Bingham.