Shaun Murphy was in complete disbelief that he received high praise from Stephen Hendry following hisimpressive world championship win over Zhao Xintong. The 2005 champion could not help but send a joke in the direction of the Scot after being informed of a compliment from the legendary snooker star in the commentary box, watching his 13-10 victory.
“Stephen Hendry in commentary said it was ‘flawless’ and Stephen’s compliments don’t come by very easy…” Seema Jaswal told a beaming Murphy in the BBC studio.
“No, no, no,” added 1997 world champion, Ken Doherty. But Murphy couldn’t take the praise lying down and took the opportunity to gently rib Hendry.
“Has someone checked Stephen?” he cheekily asked. “Do we need to send an intervention for Stephen?”
There was no shortage of praise for Murphy, who came from three frames down against defending champion Xintong to eventually claim a 13-10 victory. Hendry described the Englishman as in ‘championship-winning form’ and Davis claimed that he was close to perfect in the final session.
“It was nigh on the perfect session,” he said. “I don’t think Shaun will have ever played as good a session, it was a super-human performance and it needed that to take out Zhao Xintong, because he wasn’t playing badly.
“Shaun is playing World Championship-winning standard at the moment and if he continues it, he’s going to be so tough to beat.”
Murphy acknowledged that he was playing close to his best “I think when you’re playing great players, which Zhao Xintong unquestionably is, it makes it straightforward for you.
“At 3-0 down, if you’d said I would have been level going into the last session, I’d have snapped your hand off.
“Even though I lost the second session, I was able to get myself in a good headspace for today and I just knew that I had to come out, be somewhere near my best and I think I was. I’m delighted with how I played.”
The semi-finalist, who will face the winner of the clash between John Higgins and Neil Robertson, also paid tribute to ex-snooker pro Peter Ebdon, who he has been working with. “It’s certainly helped me tap into that reservoir of toughness,” he added.
“I’ve always been quite tough mentally, but having been out there and done it himself, he’s able to give you that little word that gets you in that zone. Sometimes I’ve been a bit soft and I’m not saying I’ve gone nasty, but I’ve certainly gone harder and I’m not willing to buckle perhaps as easily as I was.”