Murphy defies the odds with battling win over Masters favourite Trump

Shaun Murphy has been in snooker long enough to know that the bookies don’t always get it right.

Murphy, pictured, became the fifth underdog in a row to prevail in the first round at the Masters, after he put in a gritty display to beat favourite Judd

Trump 6-3 at Alexandra Palace. And for the 2015 champion, the victory merely underlines the knife-edge competitiveness in the upper echelons of the game today.

“None of the favourites have won yet, so it shows what the bookies know,” he said.

“It’s not an exact science this sport. Just because you’re ranked high and have accumulated more money over the past two years, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to win the match. We all know that on the tour. Maybe what’s happened this week so far will spur the punters to look a bit deeper.”

With Trump making three centuries from the opening five frames to lead

3-2, most would have backed the reigning World and Masters champion to prevail, but Murphy capitalised on a handful of uncharacteristic errors to clean up. He won four frames on the spin from that point on, including a fabulous 41 break in the eighth to move himself within one of victory. Trump admitted that, after his rapidfire start, he was left scratching his head when contemplating the final result. “It’s quite a hard game to evaluate really,” he said. “I was the better player most of the game, he was just making the important clearances. It was a strange game, I didn’t feel like I played that badly. There were a few bad cannons at times, but I can’t really work out how it was 6-3.

“It wasn’t that many missed balls, just a couple of bad safeties. He was just getting away with one or two more than me.”

● Watch the London Masters live on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with analysis from Ronnie O’sullivan, Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.