The trend continued yesterday as two of the three matches played to a conclusion were won by the qualifier. the “score” is now seeds 4-5 qualifiers. Here are WST reports on those three matches:
Shaun Murphy scored his first Crucible win since 2021 with a 10-5 victory over Lyu Haotian in the opening round of the Cazoo World Championship, and is excited by the chance to renew a rivalry with Stephen Maguire which has stretched for more than three decades.
Few players enjoy the Sheffield stage more than 2005 champion Murphy and he was devastated to lose in the first round to Maguire in 2022 and Si Jiahui in 2023. So the world number eight was relieved to come through a tricky tie with China’s Lyu and earn a last 16 tie with Maguire, which starts on Friday.
“I’ve known Stephen since we were ten years old, I was the English number one and he was Scottish number one,” smiled 41-year-old Murphy. “We’ve been knocking hell out of each other since we were kids and I’m sure this time will be no different.”
Murphy started the current season strongly by winning the Championship League then went off the boil, failing to reach another ranking event quarter-final. But the four-time finalist is often inspired by the Crucible atmosphere and showed glimpses of his best against Lyu, making a century and seven more breaks over 50.
Runs of 53, 71, 90 and 111 helped him to a 6-3 overnight lead, and he extended that to 8-3 this morning, taking the first frame on the colours and the second with a break of 60. In frame 12 he missed the final yellow when leading 59-36 and Lyu pounced to pull one back. Murphy’s break of 55 helped make it 9-4 at the interval.
Lyu showed his ability in frame 14 with a break of 117, becoming the 82nd player to make 100 career centuries. But Murphy, on his 22nd Crucible appearance, wrapped up the result in the next with an 81.
Murphy added: “It’s hard to keep coming back and trying and keeping the faith, especially having had a bad season. It’s like a love affair that keeps hurting you. So I’m over the moon to win a match after losing in the first round twice in a row. At 3-3 I felt I’d been the better player, but the scoreboard showed we were level. So I was really pleased to get 6-3 ahead and in patches today I played well.
“People overlook Stephen, they forget how good he is, maybe because he hasn’t won here or the Masters, and his UK Championship win was so long ago. Ronnie O’Sullivan tipped him to dominate the game, many moons ago. That hasn’t happened, but on his day he can trounce anyone into the floor, he can win any tournament. I just hope it’s not his day when I play him. We are very different people and different players, but that’s the tapestry of life and it’s what makes snooker so interesting. Our head to head is 14-14 so it’s a tight as it can be. I think it will be a cracker for the neutral.”
…
MURPHY ELATED WITH FIRST ROUND WIN
Shaun played well and Lyu was seriously below the level we know he can produce. He looked flat and dispirited right from the start. Was it the environment getting at him? Was he tired? Was he ill? Or was it just a bad day in office? As he wasn’t interview we will never know. What we do know though is that Lyu has qualified for the Crucible phase of the World Championship four times. The first time was in 2018: he was the youngest qualifier that year and he reached the second round: he beat Marco Fu by 10-5 in the first round and that remains his only win at the Crucible.
SELBY PONDERS RETIREMENT AFTER SHOCK O’CONNOR DEFEAT
Four-time Crucible king Mark Selby will take time over the summer to decide whether to quit the sport after a 10-6 defeat against Joe O’Connor in the first round of the Cazoo World Championship.
In the shock of the tournament so far, Crucible debutant O’Connor got the better of one of the sport’s all time greats, converting a 7-2 overnight lead into arguably the biggest win of his career. The world number 30, who practises with Selby in Leicester, goes through to the last 16 to face Kyren Wilson or Dominic Dale.
Selby won this event in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021 and was runner-up to Luca Brecel a year ago. For most of this season he has struggled with his game, failing to win a ranking title, and after losing to Gary Wilson at the recent Tour Championship he revealed that he would retire if his performance did not improve at the Crucible. After today’s defeat he described his display as “pathetic” but will not rush into a decision about his future.
“I will sit down with (wife) Vikki and talk about the options,” said the 40-year-old. “I will definitely take a few weeks away from snooker now. For most of this season I have not enjoyed it, I have stopped myself from playing with freedom and that has done my head in. Snooker is affecting me mentally, and that’s not where I want to be. Happiness is more important. I have achieved a lot in the game, but I still can’t go out there and enjoy playing. If I do decide to carry on, then I will need to work with someone to address that.”
As for the match, Selby added: “I was pathetic from start to finish. The damage was done from 2-2 to 7-2, I was really poor and made it too easy for him. I knew he wouldn’t freeze, he’s not that type of character. Even though I have lost I am chuffed to bits for Joe, no one is prouder of him than me.“
O’Connor’s career highlights include beating John Higgins twice during his debut season in 2018/19 and reaching the Welsh Open semi-finals. He went one step further at the 2022 Scottish Open, finishing runner-up to Gary Wilson, and climbed into the world’s top 32. This season had been disappointing until the last and biggest tournament – this is his first run to the last 16 of a ranking event this term. The 28-year-old came through a brutal test in qualifying, beating Matthew Selt 10-8 by winning a 110-minute frame, the second longest in snooker history. And he now joins the list of players to knock out a seed on their Crucible debut.
Breaks of 122, 67, 101, 74 and 61 helped O’Connor to take a 7-2 lead on Sunday. Selby took the opening frame today with a run of 112 then the next two were shared to leave O’Connor 8-4 ahead. In frame 13, O’Connor had first chance and led 31-0 when he ran out of position and played safe. Selby cracked in a long red and made 91 to boost his hopes of a fight-back.
After the interval, O’Connor’s 57 helped him dominate frame 14 as he moved to the brink of victory at 9-5. Selby pulled one back with a 67 but crucially missed the last red to a top corner when he trailed 39-42 in frame 16. After a brief safety exchange, O’Connor converted a long pot on the red to a baulk corner, and kept his composure to clear the table.
“Just to play Mark on my debut was unbelievable, and to win is a dream,” said O’Connor. “I have watched him since I started playing and he has always inspired me. I hope he doesn’t retire.
“I enjoyed being out there, the crowd was amazing and I felt like I belonged there. There were no nerves until right at the end. Beating a top player gives you so much confidence and shows that all the hard work has paid off.”
…
This result – not the score but a win for Joe – doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact I expected it as soon as the draw was out. But Joe still had to perform out there and he did. All credit to him, it’s not easy. Mark Selby has not been well mentally for a quite a while. His wife illness has been – maybe still is – a major concern. Mark is very unlikely to read this lines but … Mark, don’t be so harsh on yourself. You’re going through difficult times, you tried your best. If you need an extended break from snooker, take it. Look after yourself, look after your family, look after your health (mental and physical, the two go together).
With eight matches complete at the Cazoo World Championship, five of the top 16 have already been eliminated, Gary Wilson the latest as he fell 10-5 to Stuart Bingham.
Bingham, champion in 2015, has slipped to 29th in the world, but fought his way through the qualifying rounds, beating Stuart Carrington 10-9 and Louis Heathcote 10-8, and has arrived at the Crucible on a wave of momentum. World number ten Wilson joins Luca Brecel, Mark Selby, Zhang Anda and Ali Carter in falling at the first hurdle. The record for the most seeds losing in the opening round is eight, set in 1980 and equalled in 1992 and 2012, and that record could be under threat in the coming days.
Basildon’s Bingham is making his 16th appearance in Sheffield and has enjoyed deep runs in recent years, reaching the semi-finals in 2021 and quarter-finals in 2022. The 47-year-old will be up against Ding Junhui or Jack Lisowski in the second round.
Though he led 6-3 at the end of the first session, Bingham may have been unsettled by a surprise miss on the black off its spot when he looked set to go 7-2 up. And when Wilson took the frst two frames of the evening session with excellent clearances of 86 and 57, Bingham must have feared that moment would come back to haunt him.
But he took frame 12 to regain the initiative. In the 13th, Wilson was on 34 when he left a blue to centre just short of the pocket, gifting Bingham the chance to make 66 for 8-5. Another unforced error cost Wilson in the 14th as, on 24, he potted a red to a top corner but sent the cue ball into a centre pocket, and again Bingham took advantage with 55. Six-time ranking event winner Bingham dominated frame 15 to clinch the result.
“There weren’t many fireworks but when Gary missed chances I punished him,” said Bingham. “My game is still in there somewhere and I felt good at times.
“When I missed the black at the end of the first session, I was calling myself every name under the sun. I just got carried away, it was a good clearance up until that point and I was thinking I was going 7-2. Then in the evening when it went 6-5 I was wondering how it had turned around. But I stayed calm, kept going for my shots and managed to start winning frames again.“
Wilson, who has often spoken about his technical flaws, said: “All credit to Stuart because he deserved to win. I felt flat and my cueing was awful. This is the best tournament in the world but I wasn’t up for the battle and I felt embarrassed. I’m sick of putting myself through it because I know deep down I’m not playing well enough. I physically cannot push the cue through properly or hit shots the way I want to.
“I have won two tournaments this season but I’ve done it by scraping through, playing ok at times but then struggling again. It’s not the way I want to win titles, I just want to show that I can be one of the best players. I might be doing well on the tour and making money, but I am putting myself through torture. I don’t think I will ever feel comfortable playing this game. I might just have to accept that and constantly sound miserable!“
It’s not surprising that Gary Wilson and Ronnie go along well. They are very similar in many ways. Ronnie will do exhibitions during the summer and it has been announced that Gary will be his partner/opponent for those. I expect that to work very well.
Overall, it had the feeling of a small local professional snooker tournament, but far from a major global sporting event.
Damn, leave the Crucible alone! Or are you all speculating on jobs when the sport finally leaves this place and has become super fancy global money blown up like you all want it!?
We are not speculating on jobs but IF snooker has ambitions to develop as a truly global sport some things have to change. Brits don’t care (well, most of them don’t) but what they don’t realise is that in today’s world – and even more in the future – a sport that doesn’t want to be truly global (and that means not living on nostalgia and instead embracing an international future) is doomed. Yes, the Crucible is history, but history by definition is the past, not the future. If both can be reconciled, happy days … that what we all wish for. If not the future has to be the priority. The past is … past.
A sport really grows global if there are actual opportunities to play it. Except for China, where are all the tables?
Belgium has three players on tour. Luca Brecel, Julien Leclercq and Ben Mertens. One is the reigning World Champion (still for now), the other two are young lads who managed to stay on tour after their first two years, a rare feat. All three live in Belgium, and started playing the game in Belgium. They travel for every event. Do you think we have no clubs? No tables? The thing is that WST is not investing any effort to get events in mainland Europe and Brexit has made it worse. Vladislav Gradinari has just won the English under-16 championship. He’s from Moldova. His mother is a professional referee. They now live in the UK because that’s where most of the competitions are held. The Q-tour claims ambitions to be global. For that to be true all but a couple of of events should be played outside the UK. Look at the field of the EBSA events, especially the “youth” ones. The draw is full of mainland Europe players and they hold themselves really well … Don’t underestimate how much UK centric the current organisation of WST favours the UK players. It’s massive. Home advantage matters.
Let’s not underestimate that this game is actually very, very, very hard. Really, that is said too rarely. People want to play sport for fun too. Ok, one might be technically as good in pool as in snooker to be a top player, but pool is more rewarding for the amateur. Everyone can manage to put 50-100 pool balls when playing a night in a club. But not snooker balls. And look how global pool is. The players there are really from all over the world. It is not dominated by one nation at all. So I actually really do think that because snooker is that hard, its expansion is a self-limiting to a certain extent really.
Yes it is hard and there is another factor, the size of the table. You need a lot of space for snooker. Economically, pool is more “rewarding” for the club owners too. But don’t underestimate how much WST UK-centric culture is a limiting factor when it comes to snooker “expansion”. Even the 3-cushions tour is more international than the snooker tour and it’s a very, very difficult game that is hard to promote on TV because it’s very technical and hard to understand/appreciate for the general public.
Ok, I believe you.
I believe you in general, but still sometimes the criticism is too harsh for me. I will stick to that. But to end this let’s agree on that the O’Connor victory was NOT a “shock”. 🙂
LOL, Ronnie and Gary can search for cue action together. 😁
Yesterday I went to the Crucible! I have been pretty harsh in my criticisms, and I thought it only right to give the place a chance. I managed to get a seat for the morning session on Table 1, for the match between Shaun Murphy and Lyu Haotian, a player who I care about, but haven’t followed closely for a few seasons. I expected Murphy to win 10-3 or 10-4, which would open the arena for the first session of Bingham-Wilson.
It was an enjoyable experience. The seating is better than I remember and the arena was brighter. I still have a major problem with the playing conditions, which are still far too small, and the tables played a little strangely. There was quite a difference between Table 1 and Table 2. Facilities I saw were decent, but minimal. Of course I wasn’t able to go backstage, where the real problems are. Overall, it had the feeling of a small local professional snooker tournament, but far from a major global sporting event.
Lyu Haotian hasn’t been in form recently, but he just about managed to battle through the qualifiers. He didn’t seem to have any expectations of winning against Murphy.
Bingham was very good, although missed a simple final black for 7-2. I then got the 4pm train back to London, and watched the remainder of the match at home. Wilson did well to recover the deficit, but then completely lost his head after failing to make it 6-6.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Damn, leave the Crucible alone! Or are you all speculating on jobs when the sport finally leaves this place and has become super fancy global money blown up like you all want it!?
We are not speculating on jobs but IF snooker has ambitions to develop as a truly global sport some things have to change. Brits don’t care (well, most of them don’t) but what they don’t realise is that in today’s world – and even more in the future – a sport that doesn’t want to be truly global (and that means not living on nostalgia and instead embracing an international future) is doomed. Yes, the Crucible is history, but history by definition is the past, not the future. If both can be reconciled, happy days … that what we all wish for. If not the future has to be the priority. The past is … past.
A sport really grows global if there are actual opportunities to play it. Except for China, where are all the tables?
Belgium has three players on tour. Luca Brecel, Julien Leclercq and Ben Mertens. One is the reigning World Champion (still for now), the other two are young lads who managed to stay on tour after their first two years, a rare feat. All three live in Belgium, and started playing the game in Belgium. They travel for every event. Do you think we have no clubs? No tables? The thing is that WST is not investing any effort to get events in mainland Europe and Brexit has made it worse. Vladislav Gradinari has just won the English under-16 championship. He’s from Moldova. His mother is a professional referee. They now live in the UK because that’s where most of the competitions are held. The Q-tour claims ambitions to be global. For that to be true all but a couple of of events should be played outside the UK. Look at the field of the EBSA events, especially the “youth” ones. The draw is full of mainland Europe players and they hold themselves really well … Don’t underestimate how much UK centric the current organisation of WST favours the UK players. It’s massive. Home advantage matters.
Let’s not underestimate that this game is actually very, very, very hard. Really, that is said too rarely. People want to play sport for fun too. Ok, one might be technically as good in pool as in snooker to be a top player, but pool is more rewarding for the amateur. Everyone can manage to put 50-100 pool balls when playing a night in a club. But not snooker balls. And look how global pool is. The players there are really from all over the world. It is not dominated by one nation at all. So I actually really do think that because snooker is that hard, its expansion is a self-limiting to a certain extent really.
Yes it is hard and there is another factor, the size of the table. You need a lot of space for snooker. Economically, pool is more “rewarding” for the club owners too. But don’t underestimate how much WST UK-centric culture is a limiting factor when it comes to snooker “expansion”. Even the 3-cushions tour is more international than the snooker tour and it’s a very, very difficult game that is hard to promote on TV because it’s very technical and hard to understand/appreciate for the general public.
Ok, I believe you.
I believe you in general, but still sometimes the criticism is too harsh for me. I will stick to that. But to end this let’s agree on that the O’Connor victory was NOT a “shock”. 🙂
LOL, Ronnie and Gary can search for cue action together. 😁
Yesterday I went to the Crucible! I have been pretty harsh in my criticisms, and I thought it only right to give the place a chance. I managed to get a seat for the morning session on Table 1, for the match between Shaun Murphy and Lyu Haotian, a player who I care about, but haven’t followed closely for a few seasons. I expected Murphy to win 10-3 or 10-4, which would open the arena for the first session of Bingham-Wilson.
It was an enjoyable experience. The seating is better than I remember and the arena was brighter. I still have a major problem with the playing conditions, which are still far too small, and the tables played a little strangely. There was quite a difference between Table 1 and Table 2. Facilities I saw were decent, but minimal. Of course I wasn’t able to go backstage, where the real problems are. Overall, it had the feeling of a small local professional snooker tournament, but far from a major global sporting event.
Lyu Haotian hasn’t been in form recently, but he just about managed to battle through the qualifiers. He didn’t seem to have any expectations of winning against Murphy.
Bingham was very good, although missed a simple final black for 7-2. I then got the 4pm train back to London, and watched the remainder of the match at home. Wilson did well to recover the deficit, but then completely lost his head after failing to make it 6-6.