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."
On the other table, 2015 champion Stuart Bingham earned a 6-3 lead over Gary Wilson in a match which resumes at 7pm. Breaks of 98 and 53 helped Bingham take the first four frames, and after the interval he fired runs of 117 and 76 as the scoreline moved to 6-2. In the last frame of the session, Bingham had a chance to clear from 60-0 down, but missed a straight-forward final black on 63. Wilson tapped in the black but still needs seven of the last ten frames tonight.