The Masters 2023: Shaun Murphy finds form to send champion Neil Robertson crashing out at Alexandra Palace

Shaun Murphy sent defending champion Neil Robertson crashing out of the Masters at the first hurdle.

Despite arriving in January without a title to his name in the 2022/23 season, Robertson was hot favourite to get the job done against a player who turned up at Alexandra Palace with no form to his name.

Murphy talked positively prior to the match that there were good signs on the horizon. Those words were proved to be anything but hollow as he produced arguably his best form since his run to the final of the 2021 World Championship.

He looked confident in the balls, played excellent safety, punished the mistakes of his opponent and withstood a fightback from Robertson to claim a 6-4 win.

Murphy got in first in the opener, but missed a tough red along the top rail. The 2005 world champion looked well placed with a 39-point lead, but a miscue let in Robertson and the Australian got the defence of his title up and running with a break of 73 to take the opener.

The early exchanges in the opening frame suggested Murphy was in decent touch, and he produced a fine break to take the second – being denied a century by a missed yellow.

The third was a protracted affair, one Robertson looked in command of as he had his opponent in trouble and Murphy was warned by referee Marcel Eckardt after two missed attempts at a snooker that he would lose the frame if he missed again.

Murphy took a calculated risk to play a double-kiss on a red welded to the bottom rail and it paid off as he got the cue ball back into a safe position.

It helped him wrestle back the advantage, and a couple of excellent pots – including a superb black from long range – helped him take a 37-minute third frame.

Despite taking the opening frame, Robertson looked a little out of sorts – which was possibly down to his late arrival at the Alexandra Palace after setting off from home without his cue.

He found Murphy in excellent touch, and passed up chances to draw level as his opponent took the fourth to open up a lead at the interval.

While the fourth was a grind, the fifth had enough drama to fill an entire match.

Robertson got in with a glorious red to suggest the interval had done him good – but he ran out of position with a 39-point lead and was forced to play safe.

Murphy looked in trouble on the baulk cushion and was forced to take on a red he looked reluctant to. But he dropped it into the bottom right and raced into a lead. The final red looked problematic, but he slammed it in and developed the blue in the process.

A green off the spot was frame ball, an apparent formality, but he inexplicably wobbled it in the jaws.

Robertson leapt out of his seat like a striking cobra, aware he had been handed an unlikely chance. He swept up the colours to the pink, but left that hanging over the jaws of the bottom right and Murphy knocked it in to open up a four-frame lead.

The defending champion knocked in a good red at the start of the sixth, but a miscue on the following black summed up his day. Murphy punished previous errors, and did so again with the first century of the match to move within one frame of victory.

Robertson kept his hopes alive by taking a 48-minute seventh frame. It always looked likely to go the Australian’s way from the moment he opened up a lead, but it was not plain-sailing and an awful strike on frame-ball red highlighted his struggles. But Murphy wriggled a green in the jaws and it allowed Robertson to keep the match alive.

In the blink of an eye, Robertson made 84 to cut Murphy’s advantage to two frames.

The crowd came to life after Robertson took the eighth, suggesting a match was shaping up. They were treated to the drama of a near-147, as Robertson got going and picked off a series of pots to keep the break alive.

He got down to the 14th red, but it wiggled in the jaws of the yellow pocket as he broke down on 104 – but was able to console himself with the frame to cut the gap to one.

Robertson looked like turning a 5-1 deficit into a one-frame shootout, but he broke down on 35 to allow Murphy his chance.

It was not a smooth passage to the winning line, it often never is, as he got in front but missed a tough red.

Robertson got a second bite, but missed a tough blue in attempting to get onto the final red. Murphy was plumb on it, dropped it in and picked off the colours he needed, puffed out his cheeks, and claimed a big win at the start of 2023.

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