Congratulations to Shaun Murphy who tonight defeated Martin Gould 4-0 to become the first winner of the PTC Grand Finals event. That followed his semi-final whitewash of Matthew Stevens earlier today…
Shaun Murphy wasted little time in securing his first ranking event title since the 2008 UK Championship tonight with a 4-0 victory against opponent Martin Gould, though in truth the match was not as one-sided as the scoreline might suggest.
In a final of few big breaks, it was Murphy who went one clear thanks mainly to a break of 43 before getting in with 40 in the second following a missed brown to a centre-pocket from Martin. Following a brief safety exchange it was Gould who then got in with 45 before missing the last red and sticking Murphy up who with the colours on their spots made no mistake.
Frame three looked to be a must-win for Martin and he made the early running before losing position with a lead of 24 points. Murphy then hit back with 53 and looked certain to go 3-0 up before he uncharacteristically missed a red with the rest to give Martin a lifeline. With all the colours apart from the pink on their spots, it looked like 2-1 was coming up but that pink was to eventually prove the problem and Gould missed it up into the yellow pocket. Shaun duly stepped up and potted it into the green pocket to extend his lead further.
The final frame was to prove an even bittier frame with a high break of just 21 as both had their chances to take it but as Martin potted a fantastic yellow it looked like he would be the one to keep himself in the match. Unfortunately the green was to prove one shot too many and Shaun eventually got back to the table to clinch a 4-0 win.
For Shaun it is a deserved win, particularly given his performance yesterday against Stephen Lee from 3-1 down as well as the fact that he of course topped the PTC Order of Merit for the 12 regular events staged earlier in the season. He might not have set the world alight recently during the season’s other events but he remains a class act and is not to be written off, particularly with the World Championship coming up. With victories in Malta, Furth, Killarney and Wuxi before, this is the latest overseas title for one of the sport’s best travellers.
Martin meanwhile can be proud of another excellent week which lifts him up to 18th in my projected seedings list, knocking on the door of a place in the top 16 for the first time in his career. It was always going to be tough today, particularly having completed his semi-final victory against Mark Selby just a couple of hours beforehand, but he will have learned a lot from his run and has shown in the past that he is good at bouncing back from disappointment.
Overall the event and indeed the whole PTC series has been a real success and while the crowds were not quite as spectacular as in Berlin, it was evident from the TV that the event was very well supported by the Irish spectators. Hopefully the tournament will be back there next season.