Magician Murphy continues brilliant form against Perry

Shaun Murphy. Picture by Monique Limbos

YOU BETTER watch out, Shaun Murphy is about and he appears to be in the form of his life.

That should be the message from the Sheffield born cueman after he took a significant stride towards the quarter-finals yesterday with another commanding display on the baize.

Murphy just needs to win one more frame later today (Monday) to secure a place in the last eight after taking an overnight 12-4 lead in his second round match against Joe Perry.

Murphy, who won this season’s Masters event back in January, followed up his huge 10-3 win over Robin Hull in the first round in style taking a huge 7-1 lead after the opening session and then adding another five frames to his name later on in the evening.

On Twitter Murphy’s dress sense of a shiny red suit was attracting much tweets from snooker lovers. But Murphy was doing his talking on the baize with brilliant break building, long potting and excellent safety when the situation called for it.

In this form it is hard not to see him be a major contender for the title which will be decided in just a weeks time. Should he get the one more frame he needs, Murphy will face Crucible debutant Anthony McGill in the last eight – a match many would expect him to be the favourite for.

Leading 7-1 Murphy won the first three frames of the evening session with top breaks of 57 and 50, raising the possibility of finishing the match a day early.

But Perry fought back to take the next two with runs of 74 and 131. Murphy won the next two to lead 12-3. But Perry ensured he would live to fight another day by making a 74 in the last of the session.

Elsewhere, Judd Trump remains on course for another place in a World Championship quarter-final after taking an overnight lead of 10-6 against Marco Fu.

Leading 5-3 from the opening session Trump, bidding for his first world title, made the perfect start winning the first four frames of the evening to lead 9-3.