World Snooker Championship final: Wu Yize holds overnight lead over Shaun Murphy after brilliant evening session
Wu Yize leads 10-7 in the World Snooker Championship final after a sparkling evening session including a century break; The two players were tied at 4-4 after the afternoon session; A possible 18 frames still to play on Monday
By Noah Langford
Last Updated: 03/05/26 10:41pm
Wu Yize holds a 10-7 overnight lead over Shaun Murphy in the final of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield.
After an evenly matched opening session that saw both players tied at 4-4 and a protester ejected from the iconic venue, Wu was able to seize momentum, winning three straight frames in one visit to take a commanding 8-5 lead.
Murphy - despite needing multiple chances to clear the table - was able to steal two frames to keep himself in the game, but a frame-winning break of 91 in the last action of the session restored Wu's three-frame lead before the best-of-35 final reaches its conclusion on Monday.
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In the afternoon session, Wu chiselled out an early 3-0 lead against the out-of-sorts Murphy, but the 2005 champion belatedly recovered his poise and the Chinese player had to hit back in order to finish a poor-quality session all-square.
The 22-year-old took the opening frames despite never looking entirely comfortable and it was of little surprise when Murphy stirred, a break of 85 sending him into the interval in a much happier mood, then breaks of 90 and 77 pulling him level.
Frequent phone interruptions irritated Murphy, though, leading referee Rob Spencer to admonish the audience at the start of each session - and showed no mercy by turfing out a spectator whose phone went off during the evening session.
Wu opened the evening session with winning breaks of 91 and 103 - the latter being his first century of the match - before Murphy, 43, crucially fought back with a break of 80 to stop his opponent from pulling away.
Wu - playing the superior snooker throughout the session - then responded with a break of 97, with Murphy pulling one back before his younger opponent took the final frame.
The world No 10's stunning assault on this year's Crucible crown earned rich praise from former world champion Stephen Hendry on the BBC, who said: "He's just brilliant. He just plays the game properly. He just goes for his shots."
Fellow multiple world champion Steve Davis added: "The game's changing, and the likes of Wu Yize are changing the face of snooker by making it much more aggressive, and the players coming through, they've got to copy this, because you can't play safe."
Wu is eight frames away from his maiden World Championship in his first final appearance, while Murphy has work to do when play resumes at 1pm on Monday.
