Top News

Shaun Murphy has revealed his fiancée, Jo Rochell, has been left in a nightmare situation at home with The Magician throwing everything into his snooker game. Murphy looked to be destined for a UK Championship exit at the round of 16 stage before completing a sensational comeback from three frames down to beat John Higgins 6-5 on Thursday evening.

Following what Murphy described as 'one of the best wins of his life', the 43-year-old spoke candidly about how his punditry role and more practice sessions have helped. Given his current state of mind, Murphy is a serious contender to win the first triple crown event of the season, which would see him take home £250,000.

"I don't want to be too blasé about it, but that's one of the best wins of my life," he told SportsBoom.co.uk. "Where we were, the stage we were on, the event we're in, and of course, the man who's in the other corner. How many times has John Higgins lost from 4-1 ahead in the best of 11? Not many.

"I've hit more balls this year than I probably have since I was 10 or 11 years of age. I've gone back to that passionate, original love for practice, hour after hour. Jo's had to do everything at home. We've just got a puppy and it's just a nightmare. But I've had to do the practice and it's working."

Murphy has faced criticism for taking on some punditry gigs while still playing with the brunt of that coming at the 2024 Masters, when BBC coverage of Mark Selby vs Mark Allen finished just 13 hours before his semi-final showdown with Ronnie O'Sullivan. However, the Englishman has explained that working as a pundit is actually helping his game, not hindering it.

He added: "I actually think doing all my punditry has helped me. I've watched as well as playing a lot and practising a lot. I've watched so much snooker, and I've watched so many great players get to the line and manoeuvre their way through situations differently to how I would've done it."

"That I think despite me trying, some of it's gone in and I'm stood there now at the table thinking, what would John Higgins do here? He would probably do this, so let's do that. And it's working.

Murphy is back in action at York Barbican on Friday evening as he faces Zhang Anda in the UK Championship quarter-finals. With world champion Zhao Xintong eliminated, the field appears to be wide open, though world No.1 Judd Trump will certainly fancy his chances at claiming victory.