Shaun Murphy was confused by his performance at the Masters on Sunday and Stephen Hendry was equally perplexed, labelling it ‘strange’.
The defending champion opened the event on Sunday afternoon against debutant Wu Yize, returning to Alexandra Palace after a consistently impressive year since winning the Masters for a second time.
It all went wrong for the Magician, though, who made uncharacteristic mistakes early and never really got going, as he failed to make a 50 break on his way to a 6-2 defeat.
Murphy made no excuses as he suggested it was arguably the worst he has ever played at the Masters, since making his debut in the event in 2001.
Hendry, who won the tournament six times so knows all about returning as defending champ, could not understand what happened and was not offering any sympathy for dealing with the pressure of being the reigning champion.
‘I don’t actually relate to it,’ Hendry said on the BBC. ‘Because I think when you’re defending champion you’ve got to be even more determined to win than the previous year when you’ve won it.
‘He didn’t look on it, right from frame one, missed easy balls in the first frame. It was a strange performance.’ During the match, Hendry on commentary said: ‘Shaun Murphy is simply playing badly.’
Murphy would not disagree with the assessment of his poor performance, but was confused as to why he was so far from his best in north London.
‘I’ve looked forward to today for about year, walking out as champion, but I enjoyed the first 10 minutes, the rest of the match was highly unpleasant,’ he told the BBC.
‘I didn’t play well at all, it’s possibly the worst performance, certainly of my season, and possibly in my history of playing at the Masters. I’m very disappointed, gutted in fact, not just to lose, but to lose like that, it was very below par and I’m very disappointed.’
‘I’m as shocked as anyone’
Asked what was missing from his game, he said: ‘It would be easier to list the aspects that were there, none of it was there. It felt like everything I touched went wrong.
‘None of my game performed well, but I’ve got absolutely no idea why. I’ve been working hard on my game, practising hard, playing a lot of snooker since the UK Championship, I didn’t expect to play like that. I’m as shocked as anyone.’
Posting on social media on Monday, Murphy added: ‘Disappointed is probably the word I should use, but it doesn’t feel strong enough to portray how crestfallen I am after my match yesterday. Every sportsperson has a bad day in the office every now and then, you just don’t expect it to be at one of the biggest tournaments in the first round as defending champion.
‘I was prepped and ready for The Masters, feeling good about my game. No doubt I will go back to the drawing board and work out what happened (besides being out played)
‘Thank you to everyone for their support – I’ll be bouncing back soon enough!’
Wu looked excellent at times, especially as he made a break of 137 to win the second frame, but ultimately didn’t have to produce his best over the match to win comfortably.
‘Coming down the stairs at the start of the match, it was exactly the stage I had dreamed of as a child,’ the 22-year-old said via WST. ‘I felt proud of myself, to say the least. I was a bit lost in that moment.
‘I don’t think Shaun played well either today. I played some good shots, but there were also some terrible mistakes.
‘When it came down to crucial moments, I think my consistency gave me a slight edge in a few situations, and helped me to win. I just keep practising, staying in form, while waiting for my next match, and not putting too much pressure on myself.’
Wu now takes on another debutant Xiao Guodong in the quarter-finals afteranother upset later in the day on Sunday.
Xiao beat Mark Selby 6-2, with a fabulous performance which saw him make breaks of 95, 62, 76. 77 and 118 along the way.
