Shaun Murphy reaches Champion of Champions semi-finals with two whitewashes

Shaun Murphy advanced to the Champion of Champions semi-finals in Leicester without losing a frame, beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-0 before defeating Chang Bingyu 6-0. BBC Sport reported the results on November 11, with the 2005 world champion joining Neil Robertson and Chris Wakelin in the last four. The remaining semi-final place was still undecided at the time of the report.

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Murphy's opening victory ended O'Sullivan's return to action following his defeat by Ka Wai Cheung at the Northern Ireland Open in October. The 50-year-old, a seven-time world champion, had not played since that loss. He fell two frames behind Murphy in Leicester, with a break of 68 helping Murphy secure the second frame of their encounter.

A break of 41 followed as Murphy extended his lead to 3-0. O'Sullivan then lost a closely contested fourth frame 61-42, completing a defeat in which he was unable to get a frame on the board. The result sent Murphy into the last eight and left O'Sullivan, whose most recent world title came in 2022, out of the tournament.

Murphy's next opponent was Chang rather than reigning world champion Wu Yize. Wu had beaten Murphy in a deciding frame in this year's World Championship final, but a rematch in Leicester was prevented by Chang's 4-3 victory over his Chinese compatriot. That match reached its deciding frame after both players had put together runs of three consecutive frames.

Chang began with a century break of 109 before Wu took the next three frames to lead 3-1. Chang then recovered by winning the remaining three, overturning the deficit and eliminating the world champion. His reward was a meeting with Murphy, who had already completed his own opening match without conceding a frame.

The quarter-final brought a different outcome for Chang, as Murphy won all six frames to secure his semi-final place. The Englishman produced breaks of 50, 142, 107, 78 and 70 during the victory. Across his two matches, Murphy won ten frames without reply, following his defeat of O'Sullivan with another whitewash to continue his progress in Leicester.