Shaun Murphy made the second 147 of the season and 10th of his career at the World Open on Monday morning, despite a nightmare trip to Yushan.
The Magician has been in great form so far in 2025, winning the Masters last month as he made a maximum on his way to lifting the Paul Hunter Trophy.
He has suffered a couple of deciding-frame defeats since then at the German Masters and Welsh Open, but he looks sharp again in Yushan this week.
The 42-year-old hammered 16-year-old wildcard Zhou Jinhao 5-0 with three centuries, one of which was a maximum in the final frame.
With 10 147s to his name, only Ronnie O’Sullivan (15), John Higgins (13) and Stephen Hendry (11) have made more than him and he was thrilled to make another, despite it being in a low-key setting.
‘I’m delighted, absolutely delighted,’ Murphy told WST. ‘I must say it was an early session, an early start there weren’t many fans in this morning. It was probably the most underwhelming 147 of all time. But they’re all special, I’m delighted.
‘That’s my second this year, it could have been three because it could have been two at the Masters. There have been some very fine players throughout the game who’ve never had one, so to have had 10, I’m very honoured.’
Murphy has a huge chunk of prize money coming off his rankings in the coming weeks so actually needs to win some games to secure a top 16 place at the World Championship, which he is confident of doing and focussed on achieving as soon as possible.
‘My game’s in really good shape,’ he said. ‘Certainly since the turn of the year, the win at the Masters has been the highlight but I’ve played well in every match I’ve played, despite some losses along the way.
‘I’m very, very focussed of trying to solve the problem of my Crucible seeding as early as I possibly can. I’m intent on making sure I don’t have to go to World qualifying and that’s keeping me motivated at the moment.’
It is especially impressive that the Magician has hit the ground running in Yushan after an epic journey which took almost four days in total.
‘It was amazing. We taxied to the runway at Heathrow and then the pilot said we’re really sorry there’s no power in the engines,’ he explained.
‘There was a three-hour delay to Dubai, I missed my connection to Shanghai, that meant a night in Shanghai then an early bullet train, all this sort of stuff. What should have taken a day took nearly four days to get here. It was a bit of a mission but seems like it’s been worthwhile so far.’
Elsewhere on Monday morning there were big shocks as David Lilley beat Mark Allen 5-4 and Duane Jones ousted Xiao Guodong by the same scoreline.
49-year-old Lilley is battling to stay on the professional tour this season and described his victory over the Pistol as his ‘best win ever’ as the Northern Irishman was in decent form himself, making breaks of 142 and 103 and leading 3-2.
Incredibly, Jones came from 4-0 down to beat Xiao 5-4 on the final black, having scored just 44 points over the first four frames.
There was also another encouraging win for 18-year-old Stan Moody who beat former world champion Graeme Dott 5-2.
The teenage talent is having an impressively consistent season and now looks likely to retain his professional status after a difficult first campaign as a pro.
