This always had the makings of being a classic as a repeat
of the Masters semi-final from the year before, the match was put on as the
very first of the Masters in 2015 with World Champion Mark Selby and Shaun
Murphy.
Mark had the first chance of the match and was looking to
stamp his authority on his good friend early doors. A poor positional shot on
20 left him stranded and forced into a safety shot. When Shaun accidentally
planted the black in from a safety, which left Mark a free ball and another
chance to get the opener on the board. He went into the reds early and soon the
frame was there for the taking. From there the break was faultless and a break
of 100 made it 1-0 to the World Champion.
The second frame was quite a scrappy affair, with Murphy’s
29 putting him 11 in front with three reds remaining. He soon extended that
advantage to 29 with 35 remaining and when he potted the last red that proved
enough to take a less than memorable but important frame all the same to level
the match at 1-1. In frame three, Selby’s two early chances didn’t amount to
more than 24, when Shaun was left a chance. He made 20 before having to play
safe. A second chance came along after poor safety play from Selby. Murphy
added another 28 before having to run up the table for safety and laying a good
snooker. A mis-judged snooker escape from Murphy sometime after left Mark a
sitter. He closed the gap before a miss on the final red left Shaun in, but he
failed to get on the green playing safe with a 10 point advantage. After an
earlier foul and free ball, pots on the green and brown sealed another scrappy
frame for Murphy to lead 2-1. A trademark Murphy long pot gave him a great
opportunity in the fourth. Before too Shaun was into the pack and with the reds
at his mercy, he moved 3-1 ahead thanks to a contribution of 92.
After winning the lengthy safety battle following the
mid-session interval, Murphy had another great chance with the reds spread
across the table. A break of 55 proved enough to put himself 4-1 in front and a
very commanding position against the World Champion. In frame six an unexpected
miss with the rest for Murphy left Mark in with his first chance for a couple
of frames. He accumulated 47 and looked like stopping the rot until a missed
black off of the spot, leaving Murphy in to counter. A brilliant shot around
three cushions to the final red gave him the chance to clear, before another
amazing positional shot from black to yellow. It wasn’t all over though as
failed to land blue ball position and had to play safe nine points ahead. A
missed long cut from Selby left the blue in the jaws of the pocket for Murphy
to seal the frame and go one away at 5-1.
A missed red from distance at the beginnings of frame seven
gave the “Master of Brinkmanship” Mark Selby a chance to start himself on the
comeback trail. He couldn’t make the most of it though, missing a tough red to
the middle which was all he had to go at after a decent split of the reds.
After winning the safety exchanges, Murphy had his first chance to take a step
towards the winning line. A testing black on 9 was not too close to falling in,
handing control back to Selby in this frame. Mark added 30 but missed a very
simple red just needing the red and a high value colour to seal the frame.
Shaun couldn’t punish him though and Mark was able to finish it off to get a
frame back at 2-5. A butchered long attempt from Murphy left Selby the first
good chance in frame eight after earlier misses from both players. With all the
reds out in the open there was plenty for the world champion to go at and he
was soon in full flight. A magnificent trick shot on the black finished off a
well made 120 clearance to seal the frame, but there was plenty to do at 5-3
behind for the Jester.
The first true opportunity of frame eight fell to the
Magician and after a fortunate shot to just squeeze a red past the black in the
beginnings of the break, but right when he was looking good for a match winning
break he missed a simple black. With the chance handed to him, Selby needed to
capitalise now if he had hopes of completing a comeback on this occasion. When
the break came down to the final six colours he wobbled the yellow in, but the
rest was completed without such nervy moments and a run of 54 gave him another
frame back to close in at 4-5. The question now was whether or not there would
be a deciding frame, and Mark set about trying to force one at the first
opportunity in frame ten thumping in a top class long red to get in. He picked
off the loose reds before a fantastic split put him on to 42 and left enough
reds in the open to clinch the frame and take us to eleventh. In the end he
fell just short of the century but a fabulous 92 was more than enough to take
us all the way at 5-5.
A horrible safety at the start of the decider, gave the
first scoring visit to Mark but when his cannon on red and black didn’t work
out as intended the break ended on just 11. The table started to look scrappy
as colours were knocked safe. With 6 reds left Murphy held an 11 point lead
when a great chance came after Selby missed an easy enough black with a few of
the reds open. When the penultimate red wobbled in down the cushion for Murphy,
and was followed by a black it left Selby 51 behind with 35 remaining and he
couldn’t get the snookers so Shaun Murphy came out the 6-5 winner, in a
fantastic contest. Murphy took advantage of Selby’s mistakes early on and
played some great snooker to go 5-1 ahead, but Selby as always hung on in there
tough to play good snooker in winning the next four to take the match to a
decider, but Shaun really did show a great amount of bottle to clinch the match
and get into the Masters quarter-finals.
You certainly don't want to miss out on the top 5, so re-join me here on the blog to find out who takes 5th place on bank holiday Monday.
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