Victory tastes good for Shaun Murphy

Murphy today dumped the seven-time champion out of this year's tournament, seven years after suffering one of the most humiliating defeats of his career.

"I made my debut against Stephen as a 19-year-old and he beat me 10-4, completely beat me up, embarrassed me in front of my friends," Murphy recalled.

"And to beat him here, a guy who's back to his best and playing really well, I put that down as one of the biggest victories of my life."

Murphy recovered from the 2002 pasting by Hendry, a 10-9 defeat to Ken Doherty the following year and a failure to even qualify in 2004 by returning to Sheffield to win the world title in 2005.

Four years later he is again in title contention after beating Hendry 13-11.

"I'm slightly different than in 2005," said Murphy. "I was a bit gung-ho in 2005 and went for everything and they happened to go in.

"I'm feeling good, I'm playing well and I've got confidence in my game.

"If I keep improving I hope to be there in the mix. I've definitely got the game to win it."

Hendry was unable to build on his 147 break yesterday, which secured him prize-money of £157,000.

With £24,050 on top of that for reaching the quarter-finals, Hendry stands to take away more money from Sheffield than whoever finishes as runner-up.

He would have traded a maximum for a place in the semi-finals though, and was devastated to lose five consecutive frames from 5-2 up after his seventh-frame feat.

"In the next break I missed a red Willie Thorne would pot. I'm being deadly serious!" Hendry said.
"In the first four frames of last night Shaun was awesome. It was some of the best snooker I've seen."

Hendry was unable to follow his usual routine of taking an afternoon nap between sessions yesterday after completing the ninth maximum of his career, and his second at the Crucible.

"Normally in the afternoon I have a sleep but I didn't sleep yesterday," he said.

"I was obviously buzzing from making a 147 but I was also really annoyed at not winning the last frame."

Hendry hinted the match could have played out differently if he had only made a frame-winning break in the seventh frame.

"If I'd missed on 70 or 80 and gone 5-2 up I'd still have had that same intensity in my concentration to win the next frame, but with the maximum I was so elated," he said.

"It's probably the biggest buzz you can get in snooker."

Hendry also responded to suggestions there could be a statue of him built at the Crucible, to mark his status as the most successful player in the game.

"To have something would be incredible," said Hendry. "It would mean so much to me."