WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: Murphy and Bingham to contest final

Shaun Murphy and Stuart Bingham will contest the final of the 2015 World Snooker Championship after victories of varying difficulty in the semi-finals over the last three days. After a gruelling 15 days of action at the Crucible theatre, just two remain and we certainly have a final between the two best players in this tournament, as they've shown through their results, and now of course the world title is at stake and the £300,000 winners cheque which would certainly change Stuart Bingham's life, just as Shaun's was when he won the title in 2005.

Back to the semi's though and it was Shaun Murphy that had it much the easier of the two as he beat Barry Hawkins. Barry was unable to shake off the hangover of a long quarter-final from the night before and Shaun Murphy ran all over his mistakes and took a 6-2 end of first session lead with two centuries along the way. Several breaks of 70+ and a couple more centuries in the second session on Friday morning saw Shaun run riot yet again as he won the session 7-1 to go 13-3 in front, just four frames from victory with two sessions left. Barry played much better on Friday evening and dug in brilliantly to take 4 frames running from 14-3 to 14-7 before winning the last of the session after yet another Shaun Murphy century break (his 11th of the World Championship and 50th of the season meeting his own personal target) giving Murphy a 16-8 end of session lead, needing just one more for a place in the final. He didn't get a chance in the opener on Saturday afternoon, but when he did he took it and cleared to get into the World Championship final for the third time with a 17-9 win.

Things were much more closely fought between Stuart Bingham and Judd Trump. Stuart took the honours in the first session on Thursday evening, just as he did with Ronnie O'Sullivan two days before, as Judd Trump appeared to have lost his spark from his quarter-final with Ding Junhui, and Bingham went 5-3 ahead. The next session was squared after Judd Trump was able to win the final frame from 9-6 behind and make sure he was only two behind coming into the remaining two sessions on Saturday. First up on Saturday morning, Judd Trump won the first two frames to level at 9-9, but from there Stuart responded perfectly to take all of the next four and lead 13-9 with two frames left of the session. Frame 23 looked key at the time as Stuart was in total control of it until giving away 36 points in fouls on the yellow, before eventually sticking the pink up to lose the frame, and a good break by Judd Trump in the final frame meant that he was still able to square the session to only trail by two coming into the final session 11-13 adrift. Judd took the first of the session but as he closed to within one of Stuart, he'd go two clear again and this pattern continued until Bingham was one away from the final at 16-14. From there Bingham didn't really have a clear cut chance to win before the match went into a decider at 16-16. Stuart had a good chance in the decider and after some tentative safety from both players with Stuart leading by around 37 points, Bingham took on a plant along the black cushion and once that went in he was able to do enough to win the match and get into the final a 17-16 winner.

Final Preview:

Shaun Murphy Vs Stuart Bingham - This is the moment we've all been waiting for. The World Championship Final. The moment that players can wait a lifetime to get into and that is no truer than in the case of Stuart Bingham. If you thought he got emotional after his win against Ronnie O'Sullivan to reach the semi-finals of the World Championship for the first time ever, then he was even more emotional after beating Judd Trump to reach his first ever World Final. His run is very reminiscent of Barry Hawkins in 2015 where people continually wrote him off round by round before eventually he reached the final where Ronnie O'Sullivan was too strong for him, but again that final wasn't the walkover that many people expected, and I think this one will be very close too. Stuart dealt very well with the occasion in the semi-finals in his first appearance at the one table set-up in Sheffield and if he can settle down early in the final he has every chance of lifting the trophy. The key thing for him will be if he goes behind after the first session, how he can deal with this. In his games with Trump and O'Sullivan he was able to get in front early and then hold it together when his opponent was coming after him, as neither Trump or O'Sullivan threatened to breeze off into the distance. If Bingham is to win he will need to play as well as he did in parts of the semi-finals and the final session of his quarter-final, because he can't rely on Shaun Murphy playing badly, like Ronnie, Judd and Graeme Dott did early in their previous matches.

As for Shaun Murphy, this is his third World Championship final after of course winning in 2005 and finishing runner-up to John Higgins in 2009. The semi-final was Shaun's first game on the one table set-up since that 2009 final, but he does know how to deal with these occasions having been in them before, unlike Bingham, and of course his coach Chris Henry also has World Championship pedigree having coached Peter Ebdon to his 2002 world title. For me Henry is the best coach in the world, as much for working so heavily on the mental side of the game, which has helped Shaun massively in order to believe in himself once again and play his best, most confident snooker ever. The key between Murphy and Bingham's runs to the final is that Shaun has got in front early on, and kicked on from these positions with superb snooker to win most games virtually within two sessions, which was even the case in the semi's effectively at 13-3. This has saved a lot of physical and mental energy for Shaun, while Stuart has reel had an emotional rollercoaster to get here and that could make the difference early on in the match if Murphy can settle down quickly as this is where he has done his damage previously. When tested, as Shaun was against Anthony McGill, he has remained confident and positive with the nature of his play, as this is his natural game and the most natural way he knows of winning snooker matches and snooker tournaments. The Masters where yet again Shaun was able to blaze into early leads in most matches, gave him a lot of confidence that he can still win big tournaments and compete at the very top with players like Selby and Neil Robertson who are of a similar age to Shaun, and he felt that they were taking off into the distance. Snooker is very much a game of confidence and belief and the Magician has it in stacks right now, which is why he has played world beating snooker so far in these championships and been playing the snooker of a World Champion, and stomping around the table like a World Champion. In Shaun's mind he will be very focussed and more determined than ever to finish the job, making up for all of the final and semi-final losses of years gone by.


Prediction: Shaun Murphy to be the 2015 World Champion with an 18-14 win


Whoever the World Champion is here it's been a fantastic World Championships and one that will certainly be unforgettable for Shaun Murphy and Stuart Bingham, but who will come out on top? Well, no matter who it is they will be supremely deserving of their place in the history books and the title that everyone dreams about winning.

Thank you very much for reading the blog over the last few weeks of the World Championships and i'll be back with one final blog after the championships are over to review all of the action.