Shaun Murphy fights back to beat Judd Trump in deciding frame in epic UK Championship last-16 match in York

Shaun Murphy completed an amazing comeback from 5-3 down to beat Judd Trump 6-5 in an epic second-round match at the UK Championship.

Murphy played some of his best snooker in the final three frames, including a 147 attempt that got him to the final two reds, to reel Trump in and completed his fightback in the decider.

Murphy won the opening frame with a century, before Trump hit back with a break of 89 to level things up.

The quality continued as Murphy thumped in a long red at the start of the third frame but came to a halt when trying to hold for the black.

Trump was set to win the frame but ran out of position, then missed a yellow when 33 points ahead. Murphy stepped in and cleared the table, but once again two scoring visits from Trump made it 2-2 going into the interval.

The fifth frame should have been Murphy’s but he ran out of position when trying to land on the pink so played safe.

A long ranger from Trump allowed him to make a break of 59 versus Murphy’s 47, as the frame came down to the final green which was safe.

A mistake from Murphy handed Trump a potting chance of the green which he took, before knocking in the brown and blue to move ahead in the match for the first time.

More good safety and scoring from Trump doubled his lead as Murphy was kept cold without any opportunities to get in.

An epic eighth frame lasted 50 minutes and came down to the final four balls, with Trump needing all of them and Murphy requiring the brown and blue.

The tactics were fascinating but a brilliant pot on the brown from Murphy and a nice cutback on the blue saw him come out on top.

Trump uncharacteristically missed a blue off the spot which prompted another safety battle in the next frame.

Nevertheless, the 2019 world champion had the upper hand for most of the frame and eventually got over the line to go within one frame of winning the match, despite Murphy’s best efforts.

Trump elected to go for an aggressive safety which split the reds open at the beginning of the ninth frame, which Murphy punished by knocking in another long red before making his second century of the match with 110.

Just as you thought that match couldn’t get better, Murphy was on course for a 147 but missed a crucial cannon when potting the black to get onto the final two reds.

He nearly fluked one of the reds, but came short on 104. Crucially, he took the match to a decider.

The 2005 world champion had the first chance with a great long red but could only make 44. He missed a long red with his next visit to the table, but Trump could only pot one red then played a snooker.

Murphy missed the red and left Trump with a chance, but the Ace in the Pack missed it and rested his head on the table for a few seconds as he knew he had likely played his last shot of the championship.

As he had done numerous times in the match already, Murphy stepped in and made a big break to steal the frame and match.

Ding’s hunt for a fourth UK title continues

Ding Junhui continued his fine form this week with a dominant 6-1 win against Jamie Clarke.

Breaks of 99, 87, 118, 55 and two 67s put Ding into the quarter-finals where he will play Ronnie O’Sullivan on Friday afternoon.

The other two last 16 matches take place on Thursday night with Hossein Vafaei facing Jack Lisowski and Joe Perry playing Stuart Bingham.

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