Shaun of the dread
SHAUN MURPHY heads to the Crucible next month in the worst slump of his career.
Former world champion Murphy, 36, has suffered a miserable season as form, confidence and results have deserted him.
Murphy remains one of only 10 players to win snooker’s Triple Crown with successes at the Crucible, the Masters and the UK Championship.
But four times he has failed even to qualify for major tournaments, and he has lost by the third round 13 times.
There was one bright moment when he reached the final of the Scottish Open in Glasgow in December but Murphy embarrassingly failed to make the line-up at the invitation Players and Tour Championship events.
Murphy admitted: “I’m going through a very, very bad time, probably the worst of my career.
“But one of the first things Barry Hearn did when he took over the sport was make sure that, if you do want to climb the ladder or stay where you are, you have to compete.
“From my own perspective, I have to believe that things will turn for me and will get better but they’ll only do that if I keep working hard at my game, it won’t just happen on its own.
“There’s no sugar-coating it, I’m currently going through the worst run of my professional life and it’s difficult.
“It hurts.
“And there’s no real time to feel sorry for yourself with this wonderful circus of events we’re on now.
“I don’t have a second career to go to yet, so my only option is to dust myself off and keep going.
“You have to get out there and play, so taking a break simply isn’t an option for me at the moment.”
Murphy remains world-ranked No.11 on the official rolling two-year list. But the one-year list, a more reliable guide to current form, sees him down at No.30.
Yu Delu has been handed an unprecedented life ban for match-fixing by the Chinese snooker authorities. The 31-year-old, a former Scottish Open semi-finalist, was suspended last May and then in December banned for 10 years and nine months by world governing body the WPBSA.
Yu (below) pleaded guilty to manipulating five matches and had already received the longest ban in the game since Stephen Lee got 12 years for fixing in 2013.
At the same time, Yu’s compatriot Cao Yupeng, 28, received a lesser ban of six years, with three and a half of those suspended, for fixing three matches.
But with a huge amount of education of players being done worldwide, the CBSA were keen to make an example of Yu – especially as he was at times not fully co-operative with the investigation.