Shaun Murphy has spoken about how Peter Ebdon’s influence has carried into his remarkable World Championship run. The ‘Magician’ takes on Wu Yize for a coveted second title at the Crucible across Sunday and Monday, with hopes of reliving his glory from 2005.
Murphy has been in insatiable form in Sheffield over the past couple of weeks, beating Fan Zhengyi, Xiao Guodong, Zhao Xintong and John Higgins to make it to this weekend’s final, where he will take on Wu Yize. The 43-year-old initially enlisted the help of Ebdon in 2024 as he looked for a new edge to his game, and their partnership has bore fruit aplenty since. Speaking about their relationship last year with Metro, Murphy explained: “I feel like Peter Ebdon has stripped me back to brick in a very short space of time.
“He saw through some of the outer shell and into my soul and has stripped me of all my defences and got right to the heart of the issue very quickly, it’s amazing. The partnership has borne fruit far quicker than I could have imagined and hopefully we’re just getting started. There’s plenty of room in my trophy cabinet.”
However, it’s just not on the practice tables that Murphy has felt an influence from Ebdon on, with the Englishman explaining how his presence is felt in his most gripping encounters. He explained: “I think that’s where him being a former player, and somebody who’s walked out into that room and been the man to walk away with the trophy, he appreciates just how hard it is.
“And he might applaud or shout for something that perhaps is unseen to others. And he knows exactly what I’m going through. We’ve been together two years now.
“We’ve put a lot in that others haven’t seen, that people just don’t see. I know we put all our life on social media, but there is a small bit we keep to ourselves and in those moments are where tournaments are won. And it’s in those moments where we’ve worked very, very hard and it is a real team effort.”
A world champion in his own right, Ebdon secured glory at the Crucible in 2002 with an 18-17 win over Stephen Hendry, denying the Golden Bairn an unprecedented eighth title. However, it was the only time that the ‘Force’ was able to get his hands on the coveted trophy.
Murphy has the chance to overtake his tutor with a win on Monday, but will have to get the better of Yize to do so. It’s the first time that the Chinese sensation has made the finals of the World Championships in his budding career to date.
However, the 22-year-old has proven that he can hang with the best this year alone, beating Lei Peifan, Mark Selby, Hossein Vafaei and Mark Allen on his way to this stage of the competition. That’s despite being ranked 10th in the WPBSA standings at the time of writing.