For the first time in 24 years, and just the fourth time in Crucible history, the World Snooker Championship final went to a deciding frame. It was a fitting climax to the 50th final at this iconic Sheffield theatre and after Wu Yize and Shaun Murphy had delivered a showpiece just as, if not more, compelling than any of the previous 49, it could hardly end any other way.
The decider itself may not have had the drama of the legendary black-ball finish of 1985 but as Wu held his nerve to complete an 85 break and become the second-youngest snooker world champion in history, the ‘Wuuuu’ chants that rang round this storied venue confirmed that the sport has a new star in the boy from Lanzhou.
At just 22 years and 202 days, Wu is a mere cub in sporting terms but he roared like a lion throughout a ding-dong battle with the 43-year-old Murphy, where the winner remained unclear until the very final moments.
Both men held the momentum at various points, with Wu’s 3-0 and 10-7 leads leaving his English foe little margin for error. But whereas Wu had looked to the manor born on a dramatic day one that saw a protester briefly interrupt play by storming the arena floor and at least one audience member get kicked out as mobile phones repeatedly rang, he suddenly looked like a 22-year-old kid when Monday afternoon’s session began.
Murphy stormed to five frames in a row to turn a 10-7 deficit into a 12-10 lead and Wu was wilting. But he dug deep, kept potting the balls off lampshades and clawed his way to a 13-12 advantage heading into the evening session – the first time just a frame had separated the players at that point since the 2014 world final.
After that, there was barely more than a frame between them. Wu had a chance to wrap it up at 17-16 but erred and Murphy held his nerve for the gutsiest of counter-clearances to force a decider. He was in first at 17-17 but ran out of position and Wu did the rest.
“My parents are the true champions,” an emotional Wu said after his triumph. “Since I made the decision to drop out of school, my dad has been by my side.
“My mum has also been going through a lot over the years, they are the source of my strength, I love them so much.”
Twenty-four years is a long time to wait and the crowd were thrilled to witness a first deciding frame since Peter Ebdon – coincidentally now Murphy’s coach – beat the great Stephen Hendry in a decider in 2002. But 21 years isn’t a much shorter time and that’s how long Murphy has now been waiting for a second world title.
In a sport that saw the people’s champion Jimmy White heartbreakingly lose six world finals without ever winning one, Murphy’s travails barely register. But that is now four final losses since his lone win and this may have started to become a thing.
He was just 63 days older than Wu is now when he lifted the trophy in 2005 and if you’d told that Shaun Murphy that more than two decades later he’d still be waiting to do so again, he’d have laughed in your face.
The brash, cocky and fearless 22-year-old Murphy that blitzed the field 21 years ago has been replaced by an older, wiser, more considered 43-year-old version of himself but the attacking instincts on the snooker table have never changed.
It’s an instinct shared by Wu, meaning this final was never going to a tactical battle defined by long, arduous safety battles but it was the younger man who was, just, the better attacker and now joins compatriot Zhao Xintong from 12 months ago in the annals of Chinese world champions.
“I’d like to be the first to congratulate Wu Yize and his family, and everyone around him for being a wonderful world champion,” said a typically gracious Murphy following defeat.
“I hate being right.. I said sometime earlier in the season, we had a great game out in China somewhere, and I managed to win that one. I came out afterwards and said that he would be world champion one day. It’s just a real shame that it was today.”
Sometimes, when someone becomes world champion you know deep down it will be a one-off. It takes nothing away from their triumph but it is unlikely to be repeated.
That is definitively not the case with Wu. If he ends his career with just this one world title to his name, something will have gone badly wrong.
A penny for Ding Junhui’s thoughts at this point. The man who sparked the Chinese snooker boom by winning the China Open as a teenager in 2005 and was its standard-bearer for two decades has now had to watch two of his countrymen achieve what he has never been able to – become world champion.
Is he proud? He’ll say yes but the competitor in him will be roaring with fury. Regardless, the centre of snooker has now definitively shifted eastwards.
This remarkable victory for Wu Yize is merely the latest confirmation but if this final is anything to go by, a very entertaining future awaits for the sport. Let’s just hope it’s not another quarter of a century until the next Crucible final decider.
