Rejuvenated Shaun Murphy benefiting from stepping off snooker hamster wheel

Shaun Murphy had a perfect day at Champion of Champions on Wednesday (Picture: Action Plus/Shutterstock)

Shaun Murphy looked very well rested as he romped through his Champion of Champions group, feeling the benefit of taking a rare break from the snooker rat race.

The Magician made light work of a brutal-looking group as he brushed aside Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-0 and then hammered Chang Bingyu 6-0 on Wednesday.

There would have been decent odds available on Murphy just progressing from that group, which also featured world champion Wu Yize, and to breeze through without dropping a frame seemed unthinkable.

It comes after the 44-year-old opted out of the International Championship last week in Nanjing, with various health niggles and mental strain encouraging him to take a week off.

He explained on his Clearing the Table podcast: ‘I wouldn’t say burnout, I wouldn’t say tired.

‘I’m not even sure whether it’s in the mental health category. But I do want to take some time for myself just to go “I’m not playing that week because I actually think it’s potentially damaging for the rest of the season or just my own personal well-being.”‘

Speaking to Metro after whitewashing O’Sullivan, Murphy explained: ‘I’m not a child anymore. I’m not that young, brash kid who just does everything, plays in every event all the time.

Murphy made short work of Ronnie O’Sullivan (Picture: Action Plus/Shutterstock)

‘I think as you get older, as you just become more experienced with life, I think you learn to read yourself a bit more.

‘I could just feel myself, with that long stint out in China, back and forth to China for Shenzhen, the Northern Irish, British, English Opens…I’m trying my hardest every week and I just felt for my own sanity, for my own mental health, for my own game, just for my own life, I needed to take that week off.’

Murphy was pretty confident that his absence from Nanjing was the first time he had ever withdrawn from a professional tournament, but the sleuths of social media reminded him otherwise.

‘I thought last week was the first week off I’d ever had in my career, but somebody out there on social media reminded me that I had in fact missed the 2018 Shanghai Masters, which clashed with my daughter Molly’s birth,’ he said. ‘So I stand corrected and fair enough.

‘It was weird for me last week, watching from home, getting up and putting the snooker. But I do feel good for having taken that week off.

‘It’s difficult to play in Nanjing and then come here the next day to Leicester. The UK [Championship] is in a couple of weeks and it’s a big run up to Christmas.’

Champion of Champions is a tournament with a unique look on the snooker calendar, with players in customised t-shirts rather than the traditional formal attire.

Murphy is a traditionalist in some ways but likes the fact organisers are mixing things up and would like to see more innovations.

‘I like it. I like the change,’ he said. ‘I think, although I am a massive traditionalist, I think it is time that we started to look in a more modern area in terms of dress code and stuff like that.

Chang Bingyu was a vision in orange in Leicester (Picture: Action Plus/Shutterstock)

‘I’d love to see a couple of new innovations come into the game. I’d love to see a few things trialed and tried out there.

‘But there’s very little wrong with the game. The game is wonderful. The game is great. For those that see it, for those that love it, like all the people who are packed in here today, snooker is as popular as it’s ever been.’

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