Shaun Murphy grabs PartyCasino.com Players Tour Championship 2010-11 title
England’s Shaun Murphy grabbed the title of inaugural PartyCasino.com Players Tour Championship 2010-11 Grand Final on Sunday, March 20, at the Helix Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. He whitewashed
his fellow countryman, Martin Gould, 4-0 in the final.
The former world champion had a complete existence over the table throughout the match. The final was totally Murphy-dominated as the English cueman was on fire from the very first frame
of the final which he took 70-18 with a superb 43 break, after he took a 27-18 lead in the start.
The 2008 UK Championship winner grabbed the early lead of 40-1 just in the beginning of the second frame but a fine 45 break from Martin Gould made the score 46-40. Gould’s lead could
not sustain long as a decent break of 20 from Murphy along with 6 foul points given away by Gould added the frame to Murphy’s account at 66-46.
The 29-year-old Gould clinched a 24-0 quick lead firing 23 in the third frame before the 2009 Paul Hunter Classic winner, Murphy gave in a terrific half century break of 53 to snatch away
the frame 59-44 from the Pinner Potter and led 3-0 in the match. The fourth frame, which appeared to be the last in the end, was a tossing display as Gould gave a tough defence to the 28-year-old Murphy.
The Magician took advantage of Gould’s simple mistakes during the frame and hitting a couple of small breaks, he clinched the fourth frame 51-34 comprehensively and won the title match
4-0.
Shaun Murphy pocketed a £60,000 winner’s cheque and the runner-up, Martin Gould grabbed awarded £25,000 at the end of the final event of PartyCasino.com PTC.
Murphy holds top rank in the PTC order of merit while Gould occupies the number 13 spot. The 2007 Malta Cup champion, Murphy reached to the final of inaugural PTC 2010-11 Grand Final crashing
Ricky Walden 4-2 in round two, Stephen Lee 4-3 in the quarter-final and Matthew Stevens 4-0 in the semi-final.
On the other hand, Gould, the 2002 English Amateur Championship winner, had to clean up Jamie Jones 4-0 in the first round, Jud Trump 4-2 in the second, Michael Holt 4-2 in the quarter-final
and most importantly, Mark Selby 4-3 in the semi-final to grab the final match spot against Euro PTC event 2 winner, Shaun Murphy.
Gould has also qualified for the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship 2011 which is going to be held at the Crucible Theatre, in Sheffield, while Murphy already holds number 7 seed in
the world snooker championship seeding list. The draws for last-32 round of the championship are going to be announced today. Both Murphy and Gould are likely to battle against each other again in the first round of the championship.
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