Murphy battles through

Shaun Murphy battled illness to book his place in the quarter-finals of the SAGA Insurance Masters at Wembley.

The 2005 world champion fought back from 2-0 down to emerge a deserved 6-3 winner against Ali Carter in their last-16 duel.

He then revealed he had struggled badly with a bug during the match.

“I’ve not been very well. I was going to the toilet every 20 minutes over new year,” said Murphy.

The world number three added: “I’m still not very well. Ali was poorly through the match as well. He said he wasn’t feeling very well, so we both struggled.

“But I hope over the next few days I can get better and do well here. This tournament has such a great heritage that I’d love make my mark on the trophy.

“I’ve never been past the quarter-finals – it’s the only ’big’ tournament I’ve never done well at.

“I’ve come up against good players here in the last few years. I lost to Stephen Hendry last year and the year before that John Higgins.

Carter won the opening frame on the final black and edged two frames ahead after winning a scrappy second frame 71-29.

But back came Murphy with a break of 66 – and he levelled the match before the interval by winning the fourth 72-1.

Carter took the first frame after the resumption thanks to a break of 77, only for Murphy to square the match again with a run of 73.

From there, Murphy raised his game to ensure a quarter-final meeting with either Ken Doherty or Mark Williams on Tuesday.

Carter was to reflect what might have been.

“I’ve had the flu, which hasn’t helped,” he said.

“I went down with it on Wednesday night – and I haven’t been very well ever since.

“I couldn’t get out of bed on Thursday. I had my dressing gown on a couple of days ago and I thought to myself that I wasn’t going to be able to play, but you soon forget it when you’re out there in the arena.

“Shaun played well, but not great. It was a workmanlike performance, but nothing special.”