Marvellous Murphy takes Haikou title
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 17, 2014
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Shaun Murphy fended off a fightback from Mark Selby to claim the Haikou World Open title 10-6. |
Shaun Murphy won his first ranking title in three years by beating Mark Selby 10-6 in the final of the Haikou World Open in China.
Murphy had not been victorious in an event since the 2011 Players Tour Championship Grand Finals and looked firmly on course to avenge the 6-1 drubbing he was given in the Masters by Selby, who trailed 7-2 at the end of the first session.
But the 'Jester from Leicester' then came out firing on all cylinders to narrow the deficit to 8-6 before the 2005 world champion battled gamely to win the next two frames to seal his success.
"Mark was under no pressure at 7-2," said Murphy. "I knew he would come back and that I would have to wait for my chances.
"Today was a good match, we both played well in parts. I'm so happy to win a ranking event again, it has been a long time."
Murphy dominated the early stages of the final, going 4-0 up with breaks of 64, 80 and 52.
Selby rallied with 91 in the fifth before taking the next frame to reduce the arrears to 4-2.
It was here that Murphy entered his finest form of the final as he racked up consecutive runs of 98, 105 and 112 to move within three frames of the trophy at a resounding 7-2 at the end of the morning session.
Selby started strongly on the resumption with a break of 78 and then closed the gap to 7-5 after taking advantage of mistakes which were creeping into the game of Murphy, who stopped the rot by taking the 13th frame with a 60 break.
Selby took the next and seemed well poised to move just one frame behind, but after building a 49-point lead he faulted and Murphy's 78 clearance took him to the brink of victory, with the Manchester-based potter claimed his fifth title immediately afterwards.
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