{"id":423817,"date":"2026-04-29T18:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/423817\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T18:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:40:08","slug":"shaun-murphy-hits-top-form-to-end-zhao-xintongs-crucible-title-defence-world-snooker-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/423817\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun Murphy hits top form to end Zhao Xintong\u2019s Crucible title defence | World Snooker Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaun Murphy stormed into the World Snooker Championship<\/a> semi-finals as the defending champion, Zhao Xintong, became the 21st player to fall victim to the so-called \u201cCrucible curse\u201d.<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s 13-10 triumph means that Zhao joins the list of first-time winners who have failed to return the following year and successfully defend their crown.<\/p>\n

Murphy won four of the first five frames of the final session to turn an 8-8 overnight deadlock into a 12-9 lead. Zhao clawed one frame back to keep his hopes alive, but the 43-year-old sealed victory with a break of 69.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew going into it that nothing but my best would do, and thankfully I found it in the third session,\u201d said Murphy, the 2005 champion, who has increasingly found his form since squeaking out a 10-9 first-round win over Fan Zhengyi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the best wins of my career and I\u2019m delighted to win it and get to the semi-finals. I\u2019ve been churning out performances like this week in, week out, and it\u2019s been a real test of determination and perseverance, but I\u2019ve managed to stay the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShaun played really well, he gave me big pressure and played perfect snooker today,\u201d Zhao told BBC Sport. \u201cHe deserved to win. \u201cI felt some pressure [as defending champion] but I still felt alright. I tried to get better, but Shaun is a good player and he played very well so congratulations to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Allen seized on an \u201cunforgivable\u201d blunder by his opponent Barry Hawkins to book his place in the last four for the second time in four years.<\/p>\n

Allen looked set to be hauled into a nerve-shredding decider after Hawkins fluked a red and was faced with a simple tap up behind the pink to leave his opponent in all sorts of trouble. But Hawkins came up short with the cue ball, ultimately gifting Allen the chance to clear up and win the match 13-11.<\/p>\n

Mark Allen celebrates after reaching the Crucible semi-finals for the third time in his career. Photograph: Godfrey Pitt\/Action Plus\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have fancied going 12-12,\u201d admitted Allen. \u201cMy heart sank a little bit when he fluked that red out of the snooker and that summed up the match for me. I played 24 frames and I don\u2019t think I had to say sorry once.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawkins, the 2013 runner-up, held the upper hand for most of the contest, with Allen required to haul back 7-4 and 8-6 deficits, but increasingly faltered on the big shots in the final session, leading to the dramatic conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unforgivable not reaching it,\u201d admitted Hawkins. \u201cI was worried about over-hitting it, believe it or not \u2026 What a way to lose. It\u2019s a horrible feeling, knowing that you played an absolutely terrible shot. It\u2019s just gutting, a sinking feeling, after such a long match and playing well for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen first reached the semi-finals as a fresh-faced 23-year-old in 2009, when he almost retrieved a 13-3 deficit against John Higgins, eventually losing 17-13 but prompting Higgins to describe his opponent as a \u201cstreet fighter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I have always had that,\u201d Allen said after Wednesday\u2019s win. \u201cI think it\u2019s just being from Northern Ireland, we\u2019re all the same in all sports, we have a never-say-die attitude. I still haven\u2019t been anywhere near my best but I\u2019m in the semi-final. Ninety-five per cent of the tour would snap your hand off for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year I come here thinking I can win it, and it\u2019s no different this year. The first hurdle is getting through that first round, and the next one is \u2018can you get to the one-table set-up\u2019. Then you want to give yourself a chance [in the final] on Sunday or Monday. I haven\u2019t done that yet and that\u2019s the next step for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil Robertson leads John Higgins 9-7 and Wu Yize has chiselled out a 10-6 advantage over Hossein Vafaei, with both remaining quarter-finals set to conclude on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaun Murphy stormed into the World Snooker Championship semi-finals as the defending champion, Zhao Xintong, became the 21st…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-423817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}