Higgins and Murphy tied after final's first session

Published on Sunday 3 May 2009 23:49

JOHN Higgins and Shaun Murphy shared the opening eight frames as the Betfred.com World Championship final got under way. They finished at 4-4 after the first session as the close contest which had been widely predicted looked to be materialising.

Higgins made a bright start with a break of 78 in the opening frame, and further runs of 33, 52 and 43 gave him a 3-0 lead.

But Murphy cut his lead following a break of 58 and made it 3-2 despite giving away 28 points after being put in a tricky snooker in the next frame. He twice missed all the balls, hit the black on two occasions and also ran the cue ball into the pink.

Higgins was left with a chance after Murphy eventually did hit the red, but he could not take it.

Murphy made the most of his opportunity and then produced the first century of the final, 109, which hauled him level at 3-3.

That took the total of centuries this year to 81, 13 higher than the previous tournament record.

Murphy won his fourth frame in a row to lead 4-3, the key moment coming when Higgins failed to escape from a snooker on the blue, leaving the white ball behind the black.

After being asked to play from the more difficult new position, Higgins did hit the blue but sent it over the top pocket and Murphy rolled it in before taking the pink to clinch the frame.

Higgins ensured he would not trail going into the evening session by building on a break of 50 to take the eighth frame.

The Scot was looking to secure his 20th career ranking title, and his third world crown, but there was a long way to go with 18 frames required for victory.

Higgins turns 34 on 18 May, and victory today would make him the oldest Crucible champion since Dennis Taylor triumphed at the age of 36 in 1985.

Both men had survived scares in their semi-finals, with Mark Allen's fightback causing Higgins to briefly contemplate quitting the sport, while Murphy admitted he would have lost to a resurgent Neil Robertson but for a timely interval in their final session.

On Saturday, Higgins admitted he was "a bag of nerves" as Allen threatened to produce the greatest comeback ever seen at the championships. Eventually Higgins stumbled over the finish line 17-13 but Allen's brilliant recovery from 13-3 down to reach 15-12 had the Scot trembling with fear.

"The thoughts were about coming into the press conference, having lost 17-16 and announcing my retirement," he said. "If I'd lost that match I don't know what I'd have done. At 13-3 in front I thought I'd coast over the line. That's terrible but subconsciously that's what happens. If you think about it rationally, at 15-10 I should have been sitting there still nice and calm, but I was a bag of nerves."

Allen had started his recovery on Saturday, clawing his way back to 15-9 by winning the session 6-2. Allen also reeled off the opening three frames on Saturday afternoon

and had a serious chance to cut Higgins' lead to just two frames but broke down in the balls after potting three reds and blacks, and Higgins conjured a brilliant 116 break. Allen made it 16-13, but he blundered in the following frame when he had a chance to steal it from Higgins, missing an easy blue. That allowed Higgins to clear from yellow to pink.

In the other semi-final, Murphy had produced a three-frame blitz of stunning snooker to halt Robertson's epic comeback.

The 2005 champion had lost seven frames in a row as Robertson pulled back from 14-7 down to 14-14 but the mid-session interval reinvigorated Murphy who rattled off breaks of 106, 81 and 94 to win 17-14.