Murphy whitewashes Chang to win Group Three at Champion of Champions
The Magician followed a 4-0 demolition of Ronnie O'Sullivan with a 6-0 rout of Chang Bingyu, who had earlier knocked out world champion Wu Yize in a decider.
LEICESTER — Shaun Murphy produced back-to-back whitewashes at the Mattioli Arena on Wednesday, following a 4-0 afternoon demolition of Ronnie O'Sullivan with a 6-0 rout of Chang Bingyu to win Group Three of the Champion of Champions.
O'Sullivan, playing his first match since losing to Ka Wai Cheung at the Northern Ireland Open last month, never settled — Murphy knocked in a 68 and a 41 before taking a scrappy fourth frame 61-42 to complete the first blank scoreline of the day.
Chang had earlier produced the afternoon's upset, knocking out reigning world champion Wu Yize 4-3. The Wuhan Open winner made a 109 opener, dropped the next three frames, then reeled off three in a row to take the decider.
But the 24-year-old found Murphy untouchable in the evening's group final. The world No.6 opened with a 50 in a 68-40 frame and never looked back, adding breaks of 142, 107, 78 and 70 as Chang managed just 152 points across six frames — ten frames played, ten won on the day for Murphy.
Murphy now faces the winner of Thursday's Group Two in Saturday's second semi-final, where world champion Zhao Xintong plays Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Kyren Wilson meets Ali Carter. Chris Wakelin and Neil Robertson contest the first semi-final on Friday night.
Why it matters: Murphy is the first player this week to win his group without conceding a single frame — and the manner of the evening win, a 142 total clearance among five fifty-plus breaks against the man who had just eliminated the world champion, makes the 2017 winner the form horse of a bracket that has already lost Selby, Trump, O'Sullivan and Wu.
Sources: CueTracker, TNT Sports, BBC Sport, Totally Snookered.
