Murphy finds his feet to force his way back into contention

OUTSIDER Shaun Murphy rediscovered the form which has illuminated the Embassy World Championships for the past fortnight to claw his way back into an attritional final against Matthew Stevens.

Murphy, the second youngest world finalist, looked in danger of being overawed by the occasion as his explosive potting deserted him.

Stevens was also below his best but was threatening to build an unassailable advantage as he moved 7-3 ahead in the best of 35 confrontation.

But suddenly 22-year-old Murphy clicked into gear with a superb 125 clearance in the 11th his first century of the final.

It was the shortest frame of the final at 13 minutes, in sharp contrast to earlier events with five of them having stretched past the half hour mark.

Then in the next, born-again Christian Murphy demonstrated the same sort of accuracy with a quick-fire 66 and he went into the mid-session interval in a far better frame of mind than had seemed imaginable.

Stevens began the final session at odds of 2/5 on to capture his first world crown.

Murphy needed to make inroads into Stevens' 5-3 lead from the initial session and looked set to take the first frame of the evening after moving 53-15 ahead.

But then he went in off after trying to pot the penultimate red and a 39 clearance from Stevens stretched his advantage.

The next was another affair littered with mistakes from both players before Stevens acquired sufficient points to leave Murphy needing snookers.

But then came Murphy's quick-fire double success to remind Stevens not to expect a runaway success.

Stevens had gained a two-frame advantage in the initial session but only after potting a superb final black down the rail in the final frame a rare moment of quality.

The Welshman just about deserved to edge ahead after cueing so well in the early stages of the match, although his game dipped after the interval.

Both players are known for their fluent play and break-building but little evidence of it was on display. For the first time Murphy looked as if he was affected by nerves after his fearless approach and awesome potting throughout the tournament.