Trump And Murphy All Square

Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy shared the frames to end 4-4 after the first session of their quarter-final clash at the Betfred World Championship.

World number one Trump leads 2005 Crucible king Murphy 10-7 in head-to-head meetings between the pair, but the Magician has won their two most recent matches at the 2020 Masters and 2020 Welsh Open.

Trump was the first to leave his mark on what was a high quality session of snooker. The 2019 World Champion took the opener with a fine run of 87. However, Murphy hit back with breaks of 80 and 79 to move 2-1 ahead. It was Trump who took the fourth to ensure they went into the mid-session all square.

They traded the following two frames, before Trump edged 4-3 up with a century run of 105. Murphy then claimed the last, courtesy of a contribution of 67, to end the session level at 4-4. They will return to play the second of three sessions tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm.

On the other table, Mark Selby leads Mark Williams 6-2 in a battle between three-time World Champions.

Selby established his healthy advantage by producing some scintillating snooker this afternoon. The Leicester cueman fired in breaks of 56, 121, 63, 90 and 76 on his way to moving 6-1 ahead. However, Williams made a century break of 111 in the last frame of the session to remain in touch. They return tomorrow morning at 10am for their second session.