Shaun Murphy bemoaned his luck as he bowed out of the 2026 Tour Championship on Wednesday following a dramatic 10-9 loss to Judd Trump.
The Magician was one of the tournament’s top four seeds, therefore benefiting from a bye straight through to the last eight in Manchester.
But facing the world number one in his opening game couldn’t have provided him with a much tougher test.
Despite pushing Trump all the way, Murphy broke down when given the opportunity to snatch a semi-final spot in the deciding frame and was ultimately left to rue a missed double that gifted his opponent the chance to win instead.
“I think I would have won against pretty much anybody else,” said Murphy, who compiled a brace of tons and seven other 50-plus contributions.
“He’s not the world number one by mistake. He just seems to have that extra round in him, that extra bit of resilience.”
“I’ve been playing this game for a long time, and we’re all trying to find little bits of improvement here and there.
“But Lady Luck plays such a big part in snooker, in a way in which he doesn’t in other sports. The much-missed John Virgo used to say ‘the things that can happen on a snooker table, it’s only 12-foot by 6.’
“Of course, the double that I went for in the deciding frame, I really just fancied it. It really set up well, and it was a shot-to-nothing – I wasn’t leaving anything [else].
“The red could have gone anywhere, and it didn’t have to go over the corner pocket. But it did.”
Murphy has had a consistent season and undoubtedly represents one of the best performers of the entire campaign, but he has suffered from some painful defeats.
There have been heavy losses in the finals of both the Xi’an Grand Prix and the German Masters, the latter where he endured a 10-4 reverse to Trump in Berlin.
The 2005 world champion has also felt that he has been unfortunate to repeatedly face challenges from players who have persistently produced close to their A-game to beat him.
“I got closer to Judd than the last time we played over 19 frames,” Murphy continued on 5. “But it feels like a lot of effort for nothing.”
“It’s just the way it goes I suppose, with the rankings and the seedings. You play all season to get your reward, but it didn’t feel like a reward playing Judd Trump in the quarter-finals, if I’m totally honest.
“But that’s the way the one-year list goes. It’s a real test and a real marker going against the world number one just before the World Championship. I don’t think I was that far away.”
Trump, meanwhile, won a deciding frame for the first time this season having lost his last eight games that had gone to a final frame.
The 36 year-old, who edged Mark Allen 10-8 in the first round, is through to the semi-finals of the Tour Championship for the first time since 2020 as he continues his bid to claim the title for the first time in his career.
“It’s not been amazing. I’ve been scoring okay,” Trump said on 5. “There’s still a lot of room for improvement.”
“I think you need to improve as the tournament goes on. I’ve not played my best, but if I can find something in my long potting.”
“I need to practice that. I keep hitting the wrong side of the ball, and I don’t know why. But if I can improve on that, I’ll have a good chance.”
Elsewhere, top seed Neil Robertson and world champion Zhao Xintong established 5-3 overnight advantages over Barry Hawkins and Chris Wakelin respectively.
Those two fixtures will conclude on Thursday with the repeat of last year’s final between John Higgins and Mark Selby also on the day-four agenda.
Featured photo credit: WST
