Shaun Murphy beats John Higgins in quarter-final: China Open 2011
Shaun Murphy beat John Higgins by a frame score of 5-2 in the quarter-finals of the Bank of Beijing China Open Tournament 2011 held at the Beijing Students University Gymnasium in China on Friday.
The current world number one, Higgins, who previously beat Nigel Bond and Ricky Walden in the first and second round respectively, crashed out in the quarter-finals. The Magician, Shaun Murphy, produced a high quality display of snooker to see off the tournament
favourite. The overall score-line between the players was 63-2, 28-79, 0-78, 87-19, 1-108, 10-66 and 17-84.
Higgins dominated the first frame without doing anything outstanding before Murphy clawed back and won the next two straight to turn a one frame deficit into a one frame advantage at 2-1. He enjoyed classy breaks of 53 and 78 in the second and third frame
respectively. However, Higgins levelled the scores once again at 2-2 in the fourth, by firing up carving breaks of 63 and 26.
It was turning out to be a very close game before the world number six, Murphy, completely turned the tables on his opponent to pull off a shock result.
He produced a brilliant match-highest break of 108 in the fifth to lead by 3-1, which Murphy extended to 4-2 in the fourth frame, as he compiled another decisive break of 54 in it to leave his opponent down by two frames with three more to play.
The first chance of the seventh frame fell to Higgins but he failed to clinch the frame, breaking down on 17. However, when the chance presented itself, Murphy slotted a magnificent break of 81 to register a comfortable 5-2 win over the Wizard of Wishaw,
John Higgins.
Shaun Murphy, who recently won the first Players Tour Championship (PTC) title, has now cruised into the semi-finals of China Open tournament. He will next face the 21-year-old ace, Judd Trump, who earlier upset former world champion Peter Ebdon by a frame
score of 5-1.
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