Shaun Murphy Blog – PTC double-bill
SHAUN Murphy is back in action this week with a PTC double-header in Sheffield at the English Institute of Sport.
Friday will see him contesting the early stages of PTC 12 – the last 16 of whom will proceed to Munich for the concluding stages in early January.
Then, on Saturday, he will begin his challenge to win PTC 11, which snooker fans will be able to see either ‘live’ at the venue or on Eurosport.
The two events are all important to Shaun’s 2011-12 challenge. The top-24 on its order of merit will proceed to next March’s PTC Finals – which the Magician won last season.
Shaun Murphy
Shaun said: “I want to finish the year on a high with the PTCs and I’ve definitely got something to play for.
“I’m 27th at the moment in the PTC order of merit and, having won it (the PTC Finals) last year, if I wasn’t to make it into the top-24 and give myself a chance of defending my title, I would be very disappointed.
“But I’m quietly confident about this weekend. My game is in good shape and if I do get chances I’m more than capable of taking them.”
Shaun comes into the latest PTCs off the back of a 6-3 quarter-final reverse at the hands of Ricky Walden in last week’s UK Championship. It kept up his run of making at least the last eight of each of this season’s major ranking events, to date.
He summed up: “I was a little bit disappointed that I didn’t go further in the UK Championship because it was so well attended by the people of York and there was such a great atmosphere that it would have been nice to have got to the one-table set-up and tried to put on a good show.”
One last point, as the first real winter snap kicks in, spare a thought for Shaun whose boiler has currently packed up.
“At least my pet penguins are happy,” grimaced a certain shivering snooker player, through chattering teeth!
