Shaun Murphy credits Peter Ebdon for relighting fire ahead of Masters triumph over Kyren Wilson - 'Lost my self-belief'
Updated 20/01/2025 at 16:38 GMT
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New Masters champion Shaun Murphy credited former snooker player Peter Ebdon for helping him rediscover his self-belief, allowing him to beat Kyren Wilson and win the Masters a decade after his first triumph. Murphy admitted he had totally lost his self-belief, and only through work with Ebdon was he able to return to the tournament-winning player he used to be.
'I thought these days had gone' - Murphy 'in shock' after Masters final triumph
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Newly crowned Masters champion Shaun Murphy admitted he had lost his self-belief prior to the tournament.
It was Murphy's first Masters title win since the 2015 Masters, and the 42-year-old admitted that he thought his days of winning major tournaments were over.
Still in shock following his win over Kyren Wilson, he was quick to credit former player Peter Ebdon for rediscovering his fire while talking to Eurosport's panel of snooker experts.
"Before the partnership with Peter Ebdon, which is only three tournaments old, I totally lost my self-belief," Murphy admitted.
"I might have given off the impression that I was the confident person everybody knows, but I thought the days of potentially winning tournaments like this, events like this which are different and in a league of their own, I did think those days were gone.
"It was working with Peter that helped me remember that I can do this."
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Murphy continued, alluding to unseen battles that he fought in his life.
"Everyone is fighting a battle that you know nothing about," the Masters winner added. "A lot of these battles are very much unseen.
"I think in my career I might have given off an impression that everything's okay, but actually, we've all got things going on in our life. We've all got troubles, we've all got stresses. We're all going through something that people don't know about.
"You've got to have good people around. You've got to get help, get that support. It's very hard doing everything on your own."
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'You can celebrate now!' - The moment Murphy sealed second Masters title with sublime century
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Murphy was not shy in praising his opponent for the night either, commending Wilson as a "great ambassador for the sport".
"I must say, and I do want to pay tribute to Kyren just for the way he is as a pro, he's a great ambassador for the sport. He carries the weight of world champion very well. I think he's a great world champion.
"He's also a wonderful rest player. I do think he's above me with the rest. I think he's got a bigger range of shots. I might sometimes be a bit more accurate, but he has a much wider range of shot; he can play a lot more shots than I can.
"There was always a little bit of rivalry between his town of Kettering and my town of Irthlingborough. There was always a little bit of needle.
"So we were like, 'I've heard about this kid from Kettering, we'll see if he's gonna be any good'. Well, he's turned out to be really good."
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Shaun Murphy with the Masters trophy
Image credit: Getty Images
Asked to compare his brilliant performances at the 2015 and 2025 Masters, Murphy believes his efforts of the past week beat those of a decade ago.
"I think I actually played better here. I thought this year was better," he added.
"Not least for the maximum and nearly maximum. I made four centuries in the final, I had a century in every match. I feel I have played better this week than I played back in 2015.
"That was massively significant and got the monkey off my back for the whole Triple Crown thing. Something I had been trying to do since 2008. So it was massive in that context.
"But in terms of pure snooker artistry, I think this week was better."
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