The Masters - Murphy completes final line-up

Murphy, happy to reach the final

Shaun Murphy beat current world champion John Higgins 6-4 to get the last place left in this year's Masters tournament’s final, final in which  "The Magician" is facing the Australian Neil Robertson.

A thrilling battle of cues between the Englishman Shaun Murphy and Scotland's John Higgins was almost going to see all the frames being put into action. It would have been the first match to end in a decider for this Masters' edition, but a pretty stubborn pink stood in the way.

The match started with Shaun Murphy practically flying 3-0 after hitting in breaks of 86,101 and 69, while Higgins was all over the place. Still, the Scotsman found the strength to end the first session by pulling back one frame with runs of 25 and 49. 

After the 15 minute break the man with no less than four world titles in his bag won another frame to reduce the gap at just one point (2-3), but Murphy was careful enough to re-enlarge it by hitting the second century of the match, a great 122.

One more time, John tried a comeback with runs of 20 and 59, but following the same pattern Shaun responded by collecting 100 consecutive points off the table to go 5-3 up.

One more frame was needed in order for the "Magician" to land safely in the final, but "The Wizard of Wishaw" prolonged the suspense by taking the 9^th frame with a top break of 72.

One pink and Higgins is out

During the next one, Murphy lost position on 55, Higgins managing to get back at the table and hit a 48 brutally interrupted by a missed pink; a very tricky missed pink. The gravidity of the situation was not the Higgins missed it, but that he also felt it on, Murphy returning to the table and potting it into the green pocket for a 6-4 victory and a place in tomorrow’s final.

So, here we are lads and lasses: the last day of this year's Masters tournament is knocking on our door with Neil Robertson on one side (see here how he beat Judd Trump), and Shaun Murphy on the other.

An interesting fact is that both Neil and Shaun have never reached the final of a Masters' event, so this match will surely be a close one.

The final match is being played on the "best of 19" rule, with two sessions, one starting at 14:00 and the other at 20:00 (UK time). Don't miss to find out who the next Masters champion will be!

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