Murphy, last years finalist who narrowly got defeated by Stuart Bingham, was hoping to come to Sheffield this year and make amends of his loss last year. Leading up to the championships, Murphy appeared to be in good playing form, winning the Grand Prix and also reaching the semi final of the players championships.
Anthony McGill, an outside bet according to the bookies has enjoyed a good run at the crucible last year by beating Stephen Maguire and Mark Selby and looks to be in fine form to go far again this year.
After Murphy’s overnight lead of 6-4, McGill came out in fantastic form, with breaks of 64, 85, 81, 50, 117 and a closing 97 to roar back from 6-4 adrift and win 10-8 in the world snooker championships first round.
Just as the match came to an end, Murphy applauded the Glaswegian born player on his tremendous performance this morning.
After the match McGill said: “I’m extremely pleased. It was a really tough draw for me. I thought I handled myself well.”
McGill will now play Marco Fu, who knocked out another champion in the world snooker championships first round , Peter Ebdon last night in style by 10-2. If Fu and McGill play as well as they have in the first round, then it will be an interesting second round watch.
On the other table, the clast of the Scottish saw vetern Alan McManus defeating friend and practice partner, Stephen Maguire 10-7 in the world snooker championships first round.
McManus played well to see off Maguire who recently got himself into the top 16 by reaching the semi finals of the China Open.
Ronnie O’Sullivan opened up his campaign also today, playing David Gilbert. Gilbert, in good form managed to pick off three frames from O’Sullivan, however O’Sullivan with a 96% pot success rate proved too strong and O’Sullivan took a three frame advantage overnight in the world snooker championships first round leading 6-3.
