Shaun Murphy was the toast of Telford after winning an exciting final against Marco Fu at the Maplin UK Snooker Championship.
Murphy eventually saw off the challenge of his determined opponent from Hong Kong, winning 10-9 at the Telford International Centre early this morning.
Watch Shaun Murphy’s post-match interview
The match was far from a classic, with both players struggling to find their form as nerves showed in the pursuit of the second-richest prize in snooker.
Murphy held his nerve in a tense deciding frame, that took more than half-an-hour to complete, to pocket the £100,000 first prize.
“It all just goes to show that all the work that myself and my father did as a child was worth it,” said Murphy, who had not won a match at a ranking event all year before this week. All the hours I put in when I was at school and when I left school as a teenager to take up snooker full-time have paid off.
“I hadn’t won for so long that I’ve been playing from memory and what was in there, what was trained from when I was a child, was good enough.”
Murphy climbs from sixth to third place in the provisional world rankings as a result.
He wasted no time in showering praise on the Shropshire venue, which he believes should become a regular fixture on the snooker calendar.”I’ve been very impressed,” said Murphy. “All my matches have been well attended and I’ve been impressed with the people who have come.
“Normally when you go to a tournament all Ronnie O’Sullivan’s matches are sell outs and then people come to any matches they would have expected to see him in.
“But my semi-final against Stephen Maguire on Saturday was full and Ronnie wasn’t in our half of the draw. The final was full, and I think the tournament has been well attended as a whole.
“The venue is state-of-the-art and I don’t think you’ll find any of the players have a bad word to say abut it. I’d definitely like to see the tournament back here.”
Murphy’s victory has seen him become the 10th in an elite band of players to have won both the world and UK Championships – the two biggest prizes in sport.
“It was something I dreamed about as a child – to win this tournament and get my name on that trophy,” he said. “No amount of money can buy that.
“No matter what happens in the rest of my life now as a snooker player, I’ve won the world title and the UK Championships – the two biggest tournaments in the sport.
“Hopefully I’ve got more and more tournament wins left in me in the future, but if I don’t I’ll die happy.”
l Shropshire pro Adrian Gunnell has broken into the top 32 in the latest provisional world rankings issued today.
By Chris Hudson
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