Shaun Murphy has been in scintillating form of late, but feels he got his tactics all wrong in last week’s Xi’an Grand Prix final, when he was beaten by Mark Williams.
The Magician won the British Open last month in Cheltenham in some style, beating the likes of Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and Mark Selby along the way.
He then romped into the final of the next event in Xi’an, memorably beating world number two Kyren Wilson 5-0 without the Warrior potting a ball.
Murphy was taking on a legend in the final in the form of Williams, so it was no shame to lose, but a 10-3 defeat was a surprise given the form he was in.
The reigning Masters champion admitted the Welshman was too good for him and the 50-year-old has tactical nous which he should not have even tried to get the better of.
‘He was too good for me. He just plays a style that I can’t mix it with,’ Murphy told Metro.
‘I think I got my tactics wrong in the first half of the match. Tried to out-wait him, out-patience him, out-tactic him. Tried to get embroiled and get involved, keep the game tight, which didn’t play to my strengths.
‘I got my tactics wrong. I felt if I had got the balls open more, played on my terms, as I tried to do at night, maybe the match might have gone into a different direction.
‘On top of that, in the first four or five frames, I missed three or four balls, the type of which I hadn’t missed in the last two weeks. And you just cannot do that. It is like shooting your big toe off.
‘So you can be as clever as you want and as tactical minded as you want. But if you’re going to miss that black off the spot, if you’re going to miss that red to the middle, if you’re going to make those mistakes, you could lose to anybody.’
The 43-year-old is undeterred, though, and began his Northern Ireland Open campaign in Belfast on Monday with a 4-0 win over David Lilley to continue the purple patch.
He feels this is the best spell of his career and is looking to extend it for as long as possible as inability to sustain success has been a problem for him over the years.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever played any better than I currently am over a sustained period of time,’ he said. ‘I’ve had little flashes of moments where I’ve played really, really well, better than I might be doing at the moment. But I feel like I’ve found a little secret mix of doing the right things and kind of know what they are.
‘It’s producing good performances. As has been shown in Xi’an, that doesn’t mean you’re going to win. But it does mean you’re going to play to a decent level and someone’s going to have to play better than you to stop you.
‘The secret is sustaining it. I’ve never been any good at that. I’ve never been any good at riding that wave and keeping it going. I’ve been good at having my little moment in the sun and isn’t that great? And let’s all go and have a big party! Then not turn it up the next week.
‘That’s been my career to some degree. I’ve got my trophy cabinet. It probably should be bigger, it should be fuller, but it’s not. But I think what the greats are showing us is that we’ve got time left.
‘I lost to Mark last weekend in the final. He’s 50 years of age and he’s still a top player. The Class of 92, they’re all still in the top end of the game, going nowhere. Mark Selby and I were talking about it last night.
The leading lights are still leading the way and showing us there’s plenty of life in the old dogs yet.’
The secret Murphy feels he has discovered has been rustled up alongside coach and mentor Peter Ebdon, but a secret it will remain.
‘It is secret, yeah. Peter would be very unhappy if I started telling everybody,’ he said.
‘I asked Peter, last time he was at the house, I asked him to do a little YouTube piece, but he just said no. Just a flat no.’
Murphy is back in action in Belfast against Elliot Slessor in the last 32 of the Northern Ireland Open.