Stephen Hendry admitted a mistake he made that also included Ronnie O’Sullivan (Image: Getty)
Stephen Hendry admitted has proven him wrong, after the great tipped to win over the Magician. Murphy, 42, to secure his fourth Triple Crown triumph.
It was another dominant performance on top of a wonderful tournament which also saw him overcome Mark Allen, Neil Robertson and Gary Wilson. Few people were more pleasantly surprised by ‘The Magician’s’ magic than Hendry, who thought O’Sullivan was going to lift the title for the ninth occasion.
Yet, O’Sullivan a matter of months after Si Jiahui of China beat the Rocket 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Saudi Masters. As Murphy continues to celebrate his triumph, Hendry, who won 18 Triple Crown events in his career, admitted he was wrong.
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While speaking on , he said: “Once again I have been proven wrong. I keep on making my predictions. I predicted Ronnie would win either Saudi or the Masters.
“He lost the second round at Saudi and did not turn up for the Masters and I said ‘Shaun would struggle to win while he is a pundit’. So, yeah, I’m pretty good at this sort of thing.”
Murphy quickly established a 6-2 lead, but had to contend with a stellar fight back from Wilson. In the evening session, the world champion won five of the next seven frames to bring the score to 8-7. Yet, the experience and confidence of Murphy clicked into gear and the Harlow native won the next two frames to win his second Masters title.
Looking back on Murphy’s display, Hendry added: “All joking aside, it was a wonderful, dominant performance all week from Shaun Murphy. He just had something in his eyes and it all came together for him.
Shaun Murphy was at his best at Alexandra Palace (Image: Getty)
“He was a different player last week. I think work with Peter Ebdon has definitely focussed him. He was completely focussed. Whenever he was in his chair, he did not take his eyes off the table.
“It was all serious. A lot of the time he looks around and his mind wanders a bit, you can physically see his body language change and he is too relaxed. But he was on it all week, very impressive.”
Murphy also praised Ebdon, a former World No.3 and winner of the 2002 World Championship, for the work they have done together. After his victory, Murphy said: “When I lost to Mark Selby in 2021 [in the world final] at the Crucible, I thought my days in the business end of these events had gone. But everyone knows I’ve teamed up with Peter Ebdon and he’s helped me rediscover that self-belief, he’s helped remind me I used to be quite good at this.
“There’s still a bit of life in the old dog yet. I must pay tribute to Kyren – he is a great world champion. He really took it to me and there was a stage a few frames ago when it was panic stations.”