England’s Shaun Murphy upsets John Higgins in semi-final: 2012 Masters at Alexandra Palace
Scotland’s John Higgins, the current World Snooker Champion received a major blow from the former World Snooker Champion, England’s Shaun Murphy in the penultimate stage of the 2012 Masters Snooker event at Alexandra Palace. The match up seemed one sided in the first session but turned into a tussling clash later.
In the first part of the semi-final match, Murphy was dominating the game with all his might before Higgins bounced back and tried to change the statistics in his favour but he was not able to succeed. Murphy broke his run with an impressive game play and claimed his semi-final victory to book the final berth.
Both cuemen were scintillating during their tournament run and played outstandingly from the very first round. Higgins reached the semi-final round with easy wins over Welshman Matthew Stevens in Round 1 and the former World Snooker Championship runner-up, Graeme Dott in the quarter-final stage. The Scotsman was considered a favourite in the semi-final but he failed to prove his worth.
Murphy, on the other hand, also had a successful run during the third most prestigious snooker tournament on the World Snooker tour calendar. The Magician grabbed easy victories over Martin Gould in the first round and World Number one, Mark Selby in quarter-final stage to make his way into the semis against one of the toughest opponents in the event.
The 29-year-old Murphy cleared the table in no time during the first two scrappy frames. He clicked them by 102-0 and 101-0 after pocketing a couple of stunning knocks of 86 and 101 to take a 2-0 early lead in the match. The Whiston Warrior completely surprised the Scottish potter with this early blow. Winning the first two frames did put Higgins under immense pressure.
The third frame was a topsy-turvy affair, as Higgins was leading the set from the beginning with his fine 62-point knock but Murphy’s clearance of 69 points negated Higgins’ certain triumph as he snatched the frame victory 69-63, to move within three frames up at 3-0.
Higgins tried to maintain the balance of the game with back-to-back frame wins but it went all in vain when the World Number six swept the table in the fifth frame with a remarkable 122 break. The Wizard of Wishaw, Higgins, won two more sets to take the scores at 5-4 before a 55-point half century break from Murphy put an end to Higgins’ run and he confirmed his final match spot with a 6-4 win.
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