Snooker
Shaun Murphy: Nation’s rising stars must step up to compete with Chinese talent
Shaun Murphy has warned the nation’s rising snooker stars to step up the hard graft or risk being overwhelmed by a tidal wave of Chinese talent.
Murphy fell victim to a second-consecutive Chinese world champion on Monday night after losing an epic final-frame decider to 22-year-old Wu Yize at the Crucible.
Wu, the second youngest champion after Stephen Hendry, arrived in the UK as a 16-year-old and shared a bed in a windowless flat as he battled to begin making a living as a professional snooker player.
And Murphy believes the similar stories of so many other Chinese players indicates why they are continuing to rise up the rankings, often at the expense of home-grown talent.
Murphy said: “You hear the stories about Wu Yize coming over here with his family, living in a room without any windows, and I think some British players could take a leaf out of their book and thinking, that if they think they’re working hard, they’re probably not.
“I don’t think (Zhao) Xintong and Wu and any other players have got any sports that the younger players haven’t got.
“But talent does nothing without hard work and you must give all the players from China absolute credit for the amount of graft and hard work they put in.”
Wu rocketed up to fourth in the end-of-season rankings – one place behind Xintong – and they are two of a total of 23 Chinese players who finished the campaign in world’s top 100, 19 of whom are under the age of 30.
Chinese players won seven of this year’s 18 ranking tournaments and the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong in February represented the first time in which all four semi-finalists in the same ranking tournament were from China.
In contrast, 35th-ranked Jackson Page is highest of only nine British players in the top 100 who are under the age of 30.
Nevertheless, the emergence of the likes of Stan Moody and Liam Pullen, both of whom qualified for the Crucible for the first time, provides some cause for optimism.
“It’s been a wonderful tournament for newcomers,” added Murphy. “The two Yorkshire lads conducted themselves really well and have great futures ahead of them.
“But you can see with the investment that the Chinese government have made into snooker in the last 10, 15 years the fruits of it now – Xintong last year, Wu this year – it’s great for snooker out in China and it would be great to see that kind of investment here.
“It’s about your time and Wu Yize’s time was this week. I have nothing but admiration for him and his style of play and the way he goes about it.
“He is an inspiration for absolutely everyone who wants to be a snooker player.”
