Shaun Murphy ousts Ricky Walden in the last 16: PTC Grand Finals 2011 – Snooker news
Former 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy has beaten the world number 15 Ricky Walden by a frame score of 4-2 in a best-of-seven match of the 2011 Players Tour Championship Grand Finals held at Helix, Dublin, Ireland.
It was a marathon match which lasted more than three hours and the overall score line between the players was 56-75, 72-9, 66-63, 67-6, 47-68, and 81-55.
In the opening frame Murphy was the first to be among the balls but he could not clinch the frame after missing a golden chance, breaking down on 56, and was punished from his opponent who responded with a couple of quickfire 55 and 20 to have the first
blood 1-0.
The second frame was an opposite story as Walden this time gifted a chance to Murphy after rolling in 9 points. Murphy stepped in quickly to make a break of 41 before playing safe to get back once again and a couple of quick breaks, 17 and 14, afterwards
proved good enough to level the scores by 1-1.
Walden had a good chance in the third frame as he went 54 in front. Murphy had an opportunity but he went out of position after a break of 43 going from the green to brown. At that point, Walden almost had the frame before he missed an unbelievable pink
off the spot to trail by 2-1.
Murphy extended his lead by 3-1 with a decisive break of 50 in the fourth but the next frame proved to be the longest of the final stages of the tournament, which lasted more than 52 minutes.
A bout of safety play was seen between the players with Walden eventually coming on top to reduce the deficit by 3-2.
The sixth frame was also a scrappy affair many chances were seen coming and going but it was Murphy who finished the matters off by winning it in the end.
Murphy, who is the first one reach the quarter-final, said Walden was a bit unlucky in a couple of frames on getting some bad kicks but on the same note he also said that he is pleased with his performance as he holds the record of playing the longest frame.
Shaun Murphy will now face either Stephen Lee or Mark Davis in the quarter-finals on Saturday. Hopefully, it is going to be a promising match.
The other player who will be joining him in the quarter-finals are Matthew Stevens and Mark Williams who have beaten Dominic Dale and Anthony Hamilton by a frame score of 4-1 and 4-0 respectively.
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