• Welsh Open

Murphy crashes out as Selby and Trump ease through

Shaun Murphy was the in-form player going into the Welsh Open © PA Photos

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Shaun Murphy suffered a shock exit from the Welsh Open after surrendering a 3-1 lead to Liang Wenbo, who rallied to win 4-3 in Newport.

Murphy, who recently made two maximum 147 breaks in the space of a month, ensured a 3-1 lead thanks to breaks of 65 and 86.

However, Wenbo capitalised on Murphy's missed chances and took the final three frames thanks to visits of 55, 81, 52.

Judd Trump took four consecutive frames to condemn Anthony McGill to a 4-1 defeat at the Newport Centre. McGill took the lead with a fine break of 98, but Trump edged two scrappy visits to retake the lead. Breaks of 73 and 53 were enough to see world No.4 Trump to round four, where he will now face the winner of Mark King and John Higgins.

Elsewhere, Mark Selby whitewashed Dominic Dale 4-0 to earn his place in the last 16 and a tie with Ali Carter, who overcame Mark Allen to win 4-2.

Selby knocked in breaks of 70 and 71 to quickly establish a two-frame advantage before Dale fluked a brown to leave himself snookered and gift the world No.2 the final frame.

"I didn't do much wrong today," Selby told worlsnooker.com. "When Dominic got a chance he had horrible luck, but I'm still happy to win. I can't remember the last time I played a morning match so it is nice to now have the rest of the day off to relax and go around Newport. Then I will come back later and have a practice session."

Meanwhile, Carter opened with a 68 to take the early advantage against Allen, who then hit back with breaks of 53 and 50 to retake the lead. However, Carter made runs of 94, 58 and 70 to take three successive frames and set up a clash with Selby.

Elsewhere, Joel Walker, 19, made the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time with a 4-1 defeat of James Wattana. Scott Donaldson came back from 3-2 down to defeat 2007 finalist Andrew Higginson and advance, while Welshman Matthew Stevens lost out to Joe Perry in a thrilling seven-frame contest.

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