Stephen Lee booked himself out of the Maplin UK Championship in Telford – and straight into an appointment with the dentist.

World No 26 Lee went down 9-3 to Shaun Murphy at the International Centre last night, the form that had seen him dump out Stephen Hendry and Mark King in the earlier rounds deserting him at the quarter-final stage. 

Lee pointed to a painful bout of toothache as a major contributing factor as Murphy ran out a comfortable winner. 

The former world champion lost the opening frame but then won the next seven to put himself in the driving seat. Lee briefly rallied at the start of the evening session with breaks of 64 and 68 reducing his deficit. 

But Murphy came back with efforts of 98 and 85 to ensure a place in the last four for the second consecutive year. 

“I’ve had toothache all day and that obviously hasn’t helped,” said Lee. “I had it the other day but it went away in the match and I played really well. 

“It didn’t happen for me this time. I’ve just chucked the match away – I couldn’t get involved in it and it’s hurtful. 

“Even when I got it back to 7-3 I didn’t feel I was in it, I just wanted to go to the dentist and get this tooth out. 

“I’d have taken a quarter-final with the way I’ve been playing this season. 

“Murphy’s hitting the ball well and I hope he goes on and does well.” 

Murphy has also struggled for form this season, but has got progressively better since beating Martin Gould in the first round. 

“With what’s happened this season so far I can’t believe I’m in the last four. I’m well pleased,” he declared. 

“I’ve played better and lost, but you can only beat what’s there in front of you, and I’m pleased to be through.” 

The Rotherham-based 26-year-old also revealed how a self-delivered pep talk got him back on track after a slow start to the evening’s play last night. 

“From 7-1 it was unlikely the result was going to go his way, although people have won from that far back,” he added. 

“When I was coming over from the hotel I saw Stephen filling his car up ready to leave, so I thought he was going to go all-out attack – and that’s really hard to defend against. 

“That made it tough, but I took myself out after the second frame (of the evening session) and had a good talking to myself. I really wanted to finish it off before the mid-session interval, and I managed to do it.”

By CHRIS HUDSON

Yesterday’s Frame Scores

Quarter-Final details

Shaun Murphy (Eng) beat Stephen Lee (Eng) 9-3 – 7-91 (91), 59-17, 86-30 (70), 89-15 (86), 79-51 (51), 65-44, 99-0 (51), 64-18, 27-64, 41-72 (68), 98-3 (98), 85-8 (85).

Stephen Maguire (Sco) beat John Higgins (Sco) 9-7 – 73-11 (69), 60-43, 1-72 (72), 68-9 (66), 49-64 (53), 96-5 (67), 7-74, 5-68, 74-33 (73), 64-29 (63), 0-110 (109), 57-13, 17-80, 28-71, 83-21 (75), 78-24 (74). 

Order of play

Today – 1pm & 7pm: 

Marco Fu (Hong Kong) v Ali Carter (Eng) 

Tomorrow’s semi-final – 2pm & 7pm: 

Shaun Murphy (Eng) v Stephen Maguire (Scot)