Shaun Murphy produced a magical 147 clearance as he ended the run of amateur Daniel Wells to reach the quarter-finals of the Betvictor Welsh Open in Llandudno.
Earlier in the afternoon session, Welshman Wells – who dropped out of the professional ranks in 2021 and went to work for his mum’s cleaning business – had pulled off a shock 4-2 victory over world number five Judd Trump.
Murphy, though, was in no mood to become another scalp as ‘The Magician’ followed a clearance of 145 in the second frame with a maximum in the next, the seventh of his career.
The 185th professional 147 – and Shaun Murphy’s seventh!@Magician147 is through to the @BetVictor Welsh Open quarter finals after a stunning performance ?
? @BBCWales | @discoveryplusUK | @Eurosport | #HomeNations ??????? pic.twitter.com/675ryRIVUo
— World Snooker Tour (@WeAreWST) February 16, 2023
Although Wells regrouped to get a frame on the board, another 78 break from Murphy, who earlier had taken his personal century tally past 600, secured an impressive 4-1 win and a place in the last eight.
“I felt something good was coming for sometime, and it all came at once,” Murphy told Eurosport.
“The thing that was so pleasing with the 147 was I tried to make it from the very first red.
Absolutely delighted to make my 600th career century break today and join a very small group of players to have made that many. I promise not to mention it when @announcerphil and I record the latest episode of @onefoursevenpod tonight ? pic.twitter.com/twMwaomxlq
— Shaun Murphy (@Magician147) February 16, 2023
“Very briefly I felt like Neo from the Matrix – I was just seeing green lines everywhere, but that is what the hours of practice are for, that when you get the chance (of a 147) to keep it going.
“It’s just your alignment clicks, your sighting clicks, your striking clicks and all the balls go in. Sometimes it is easy, but most of the time it is really hard.”
World number one Ronnie O’Sullivan had little trouble in dispatching Belgian 18-year-old Ben Mertens 4-0, scoring three half-centuries, while Welshman Jak Jones lost 4-2 against Pang Junxu of China.
Elsewhere in Thursday’s evening session at Venue Cymru, world number 12 Jack Lisowski suffered an unexpected 4-1 defeat to China’s Yuan Sijun.
Joe O’Connor, though, is safely through to the quarter-finals after he coasted past Robbie Williams without dropping a frame.
Thursday’s late matches saw Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen progress with a 4-2 win over Belgian Luca Brecel while Robert Milkins beat Hossein Vafaei 4-1 and John Higgins was defeated 4-1 by Tian Pengfei, who had earlier knocked out Ali Carter.
