![\"Wu](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/087e31d1-c781-4a5b-81c3-9bbf9da66586.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe 22-year-old produced a match-winning break of 85 to win 18-17 to become the second youngest champion of the modern era and the second in succession from China after last year\u2019s triumph by Zhao Xintong.<\/p>\n
In a pulsating final session, Wu was repeatedly pegged back by Murphy, looking to seal his second crown 21 years after his first, and missed a black off its spot that would surely have got him over the line in the previous frame.<\/p>\n
Murphy duly cleared and had the first chance in the decider, but Wu stepped up to the plate yet again, polishing off the title-winning break in a manner that suggests the sport has heralded the birth of a new superstar.<\/p>\n
Sweeping to the final with victories over the likes of Mark Selby and Mark Allen, Wu picked up an army of fans for his free-scoring style, repeatedly digging deep to repel a succession of much more experienced opponents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wu Yize (right) celebrates winning the World Snooker Championship final against Shaun Murphy (left) at the Crucible. Photo: Richard Sellers\/PA Wire.<\/p>\n
A decider had seemed almost inevitable as a nerve-jangling final session developed, with Wu resuming 13-12 in front after withstanding a five-frame burst from Murphy upon their resumption on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The Lanzhou-born player had looked down and out after the experienced Murphy roared back from a 10-7 deficit, pouncing on a succession of errors from his opponent to surge into a 12-10 lead.<\/p>\n
Wu looked a pale imitation of the ferocious potting machine who had blazed into his first world final with scintillating wins over Selby and Allen, and Murphy looked a strong bet to make his experience count.<\/p>\n
But far from the first time in this tournament, Wu, who had failed to win a match at the Crucible in two previous attempts prior to this year, rolled with the punches and came out firing.<\/p>\n
A missed mid-range red by Murphy proved the pivotal moment, Wu responding with a nervous 64 to stem his opponent\u2019s momentum, before proceeding to take the last two frames of a see-saw afternoon and ensure he would start the final session 13-12 in front.<\/p>\n
Wu sustained his momentum with a break of 88 in the first frame of the evening to set up a thrilling spectacle in which the pair persistently traded blows.<\/p>\n
Wu maintained his one-frame lead into the mid-session interval but Murphy was far from done, clawing back a 70-point deficit to draw level at 15-15, and a magnificent 131 clearance two frames later to nudge the match ever closer to a seemingly inevitable decider.<\/p>\n
Wu moved one clear after overturning Murphy\u2019s half-century lead with a break of 91, but after the drama of his semi-final win over Allen, it was the Chinese star\u2019s turn to miss a simple black, giving Murphy the chance to take the match to the brink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 22-year-old produced a match-winning break of 85 to win 18-17 to become the second youngest champion of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,898,112],"class_list":["post-432655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news-ticker","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432655","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=432655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}