Murphy sees off Hendry

Shaun Murphy held his nerve to knock Stephen Hendry out of the Betfred.com World Championship and power into the semi-finals.

The 2005 champion set up a showdown with Neil Robertson or Stephen Maguire after fending off a Hendry fightback in their concluding session.

Murphy had been on the receiving end of a 147 from Hendry yesterday but won an enthralling match 13-11, finishing with a century.

He had been 5-2 down after Hendry’s seventh-frame maximum, but produced a gutsy comeback to keep alive his hopes of a second Crucible title.

Resuming this morning with Murphy 9-7 ahead, the pair shared the four frames before the mid-session interval. Murphy had looked like nudging 12-8 ahead but a break of 25 from Hendry saw him stay in touch at 11-9.

The seven-time former world champion nevertheless needed to win four of the next five frames to reach the last four.

He secured the first thanks to a break of 80, but it was 12-10 after Murphy made a brisk 81 in the next.

Hendry was not giving up on his dream of an eighth world title, and first since 1999, and made a run of 69 to narrow the gap.

But missing an easy red early in the next frame presented Murphy with a match-winning opportunity and he took it in fine style with an immaculate 110 break under pressure.