{"id":567004,"date":"2026-05-05T07:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T07:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567004\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T07:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T07:18:14","slug":"shaun-murphys-message-to-fiancee-after-losing-dramatic-final-cracks-up-crowd-other-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/567004\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun Murphy&#8217;s message to fiancee after losing dramatic final cracks up crowd | Other | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"withoutCaption\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/shaun-3-6901261.jpg\" class=\"zoomEnabled\" data-img=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/4\/1200x712\/secondary\/shaun-3-6901261.jpg?r=1777931771057\" alt=\"Shaun Murphy\" title=\"Shaun Murphy\" width=\"590\" height=\"350\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Shaun Murphy speaks after losing the World Snooker Championship final (Image: BBC)<\/p>\n<p data-mce-linkchecker-status=\"valid\"><a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Shaun Murphy\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/shaun-murphy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shaun Murphy<\/a>&#8216;s message to his fiancee Jo Rochell cracked up the Crucible crowd after he lost the <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"World Snooker Championship\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/world-snooker-championship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">World Snooker Championship<\/a> final to Wu Yize. The gutted Magician <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/othersport\/2201723\/Wu-Yize-snooker-final-Shaun-Murphy-World-Championship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">was beaten in a final-frame decider<\/a> to suffer a 18-17 defeat, as he was denied a second crown after his 2005 triumph. And the 43-year-old laughed at subjecting his fiancee to two weeks in Sheffield after she had hoped for a holiday if he left the tournament early, having failed to progress past round two in the previous four years.<\/p>\n<p>Murphy told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/bbc\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BBC<\/a>: &#8220;[My coach] Peter [Ebdon] seems to think there&#8217;s more to come. Don&#8217;t feel like I&#8217;ve got much left right now! As for Jo, you know what she said to me as we came here, &#8216;If it goes wrong, we might sneak away for a couple of weeks. Can we just get away from it all?&#8217; Of course it nearly did go wrong in the very first round. You can make an argument I shouldn&#8217;t be stood here at all. So I treated Jo to two weeks in Sheffield! Which I&#8217;ll probably pay for at some stage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Murphy was clearly devastated as his losing streak in World Championship finals stretched to four, having also been bested in 2009, 2015 and 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The runner-up still showed his class as he added: &#8220;Very [proud]. It&#8217;s been an excellent couple of weeks for me and my team. It&#8217;s been a wonderful time here in Sheffield. We&#8217;ve had an amazing time. Some great performances. We&#8217;ve had a lot of laughs. Jeez we came close. We were very, very close.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would like to be the first to congratulate Wu and his family and everyone around him on being a wonderful world champion. Congratulations. I hate being right! I said some time earlier in the season, we had a great game out in China somewhere which I somehow managed to win.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I came out afterwards and said he will be a world champion one day, just a real shame it was today! But I couldn&#8217;t have given it in any more, I couldn&#8217;t have tried any harder. I played the best shots I could play where the balls finished. I didn&#8217;t get my chance. I can&#8217;t do any more than that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To round off the interview, BBC host Hazel Irvine said: &#8220;Shaun can I just say on behalf of everyone you have given us the most tremendous pleasure watching you go about your business here. You are a class act whether you win or lose. More power to you. Let&#8217;s see you back in this final one more time, giving it another go.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"withoutCaption\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sheffield-england-runner-up-shaun-murphy-of-england-is-interviewed-by-presenter-hazel-irvine-6901268.jpeg\" class=\"zoomEnabled\" data-img=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/4\/1200x712\/secondary\/sheffield-england-runner-up-shaun-murphy-of-england-is-interviewed-by-presenter-hazel-irvine-6901268.jpg?r=1777931771075\" alt=\"Halo World Snooker Championship - Day Seventeen\" title=\"Halo World Snooker Championship - Day Seventeen\" width=\"590\" height=\"393\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Shaun Murphy gave a classy interview to the BBC after losing the final (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n<p class=\"withoutCaption\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/chinas-wu-yize-kisses-the-championship-trophy-during-the-awards-ceremony-after-his-victory-6901269.j.jpeg\" class=\"zoomEnabled\" data-img=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/4\/1200x712\/secondary\/chinas-wu-yize-kisses-the-championship-trophy-during-the-awards-ceremony-after-his-victory-6901269.jpg?r=1777931771090\" alt=\"SNOOKER-GBR-WORLD\" title=\"SNOOKER-GBR-WORLD\" width=\"590\" height=\"393\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Wu Yize&#8217;s triumph means China have had back-to-back Crucible champions (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n<p>The Beeb then interviewed newly-crowned champion Wu Yize, who at 22 is now the second-youngest winner of all time. Only Stephen Hendry, who was 21 in 1990, was a younger Crucible king than the 2026 victor.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese potter reflected: &#8220;I have been trying to go for this, for ages. For the past few months, I have been living the same life. I am so happy that I could play well today.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My parents are the true champions. Since I made the decision to drop out of school, my dad has been by my side. My mum has also been going through a lot over the years, they are the source of my strength, I love them so much.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just want to have a good sleep. I have been feeling nerves all the time since before the match, so now I just want to go to bed!&#8221; Wu was constantly supported by the Crucible crowd throughout the tournament, with the spectators&#8217; chants of &#8220;Wuuuuu!&#8221; briefly causing some confusion for the youngster.<\/p>\n<p>He admitted: &#8220;At the beginning I had a misunderstanding, I thought they were booing me! But then the staff told me they were cheering me on so I can&#8217;t thank you enough. Thank you for all your support, I think the love for snooker is mutual.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaun Murphy speaks after losing the World Snooker Championship final (Image: BBC) Shaun Murphy&#8216;s message to his fiancee&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[187158,128659,49,194206,50,172375,65155,194205,51,47,52,48,186641],"class_list":["post-567004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crucible-theatre","tag-fiancee","tag-headlines","tag-jo-rochell","tag-news","tag-shaun-murphy","tag-snooker","tag-the-crucible-theatre","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world-snooker-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}