John Higgins and Shaun Murphy continue their enthralling World Snooker Championship semi-final tonight at the Crucible Theatre after a tight first two sessions.
Higgins was particularly impressive in this morning’s exchanges, with the 51-year-old bidding to become the oldest world champion in snooker history, as he chases his fifth world title.
He notched breaks of 72, 57 and 86 to open up a two-frame advantage, but Murphy – the 2005 world champion who is enjoying an impressive season – rallied to bring the scores level at 8-8 in their best-of-33 encounter. The pair will play eight more frames this evening before finishing their battle on Saturday.
Meanwhile, history was made in the other semi-final as Mark Allen and Wu Yize played out the longest frame in Crucible history. The epic encounter lasted for more than 100 minutes and saw some of the bizarrest scenes ever witnessed on the baize. A logjam was created when eight reds and the black were stuck over the right corner pocket, leading to a logjam that lasted for around 55 minutes. Eventually, Wu somehow prevailed and that match is locked at 7-7 with two sessions to play.
Follow all the latest scores and action from the World Championship at the Crucible below:
John Higgins 10-10 Shaun Murphy
Higgins is first to pot a ball and now he is building nicely, into the 30s with the reds nicely spread…
John Higgins 10-10 Shaun Murphy
We’re back on at the Crucible in this absorbing semi-final. There are still 13 frames to play, but it has the signs of a match going all the way to a decider.
Murphy with a good break-off, and they’re into a safety exchange.
‘An embarrassment to snooker’
The mid-session interval. If you missed it earlier, well, this happened:
John Higgins 10-10 Shaun Murphy – MURPHY WINS FRAME 20
There’s no century break, but an 82 is enough to draw Murphy level. Great match, this.
John Higgins 10-9 Shaun Murphy
This is excellent from Murphy, carefully building a potentially frame-winning break in one visit. He’s over the half-century mark and still going, with the balls set up perfectly…
John Higgins 10-9 Shaun Murphy – HIGGINS WINS FRAME 19
An epic frame – albeit nothing seems epic anymore after Wu-Allen earlier – and Higgins battles through to victory after putting Murphy in trouble with a masterful snooker behind the black.
John Higgins 9-9 Shaun Murphy
Murphy pots the yellow brilliantly while escaping a snooker via two cushions – one of the shots of the match so far – but then misses a very pottable mid-range green.
They exchange snookers before Higgins pots the green and plays safe off the brown. Murphy leads 54-47 and this is very tense.
John Higgins 9-9 Shaun Murphy
Higgins runs out of position and misses a dificult pot to the middle pocket after a break of only 34. Murphy buries a brilliant long straight red and he’s got a chance now to push clear – but there are a couple of reds on the side rail and he is soon forced to play safe.
John Higgins 9-9 Shaun Murphy
Oh dear, oh dear. Murphy misses a routine black off the spot with the frame at his mercy, and Higgins is back on the table trailing by 44 points, with a chance to respond.
