Shaun Murphy has revealed his ambition of changing into world primary to Stephen Hendry, believing the race for snooker’s high rating is extra open than it has been in recent times.
The 2005 world champion mentioned his objectives throughout an look on the Snooker Membership podcast with Hendry, who is aware of higher than most what it takes to achieve the highest of the game.
The Scot’s spell on the summit of the rankings all through the Nineties made him the dominant participant of his period.
For Murphy, the Magician has received virtually every little thing the game has to supply – together with the World Championship, the Masters, and the UK Championship – however one achievement has to this point eluded him.
Regardless of spending greater than 20 years among the many recreation’s elite, the Englishman has by no means climbed greater than third on this planet rankings.
“I’ve by no means made it to the highest of the rankings,” Murphy mentioned on the podcast. “I really feel it’s in attain for a number of of us, as a result of Judd Trump has come again to the pack a bit.”
“Somebody goes to need to win a whole lot of tournaments to catch him and I’m going to attempt, hopefully, for that particular person to be me.
“I believe it’s potential that I could possibly be sat right here this time subsequent yr as world primary. It’s positively one among my objectives, it’s on my record.”
Primarily based on the official two-year record, Murphy has loads of work to do.
The 42-year-old started the brand new season ranked sixth on this planet and presently sits round £700,000 behind Trump.
Nevertheless, Trump amassed an enormous quantity of prize cash through the 2024/25 marketing campaign and now faces the problem of defending it over the subsequent 12 months.
The world primary’s £500,000 payday for successful the inaugural Saudi Arabia Masters in 2024 represents the only greatest chunk of prize cash because of come off his rolling tally this season – notably as that match has been scrapped from the calendar.
Murphy, in the meantime, finds himself in a a lot stronger place than his official rating would possibly recommend.
Though he lifted the Masters trophy in 2025, that success didn’t convey rating factors because the Triple Crown occasion is an invitational match.
His ranking-event marketing campaign that season was comparatively modest, that means there’s comparatively little prize cash to defend through the upcoming marketing campaign.
In consequence, Murphy already occupies fourth place on the provisional end-of-season rankings.
Solely reigning world champion Wu Yize, Neil Robertson, and Zhao Xintong presently sit above him, with Murphy roughly £230,000 adrift of the previous’s whole.
It’s nonetheless a substantial hole, however a far much less daunting one than the official rankings point out.
Zhao arguably possesses the best alternative to grow to be snooker’s subsequent world primary given he has hardly any factors to defend till the 2027 World Championship.
However with a £500,000 sum finally to be deducted from the Chinese language’s whole for his win on the Crucible final yr, it’s all to play for by way of the end-of-season world primary race.
Murphy himself enters the brand new season filled with confidence after coming agonisingly near including a second world title to his assortment on the Crucible Theatre in Might.
The Magician produced a sequence of spectacular performances earlier than shedding an unforgettable World Championship remaining 18-17 to Wu, who claimed the largest title of his profession in dramatic style.
To bridge the remaining hole on the high of the rankings, Murphy believes there’s one easy components.
“I’m attempting to do actually good apply, and a great deal of it. It’s the key, and that’s what has saved Judd forward of everybody else in the previous few years.”
“All he does is play snooker. If you’re constantly hitting balls, you can be fairly good at it.
“I’ve had a while off since Sheffield, however the cue got here out final week and I’ve been within the snooker room daily. I’ll be in there daily till I am going to Shanghai.
“As soon as the season will get beneath manner, I’m going old-school ‘Rocky’ mode – coaching daily.”
Murphy’s first look of the brand new season comes at subsequent week’s Shanghai Masters, though the invitational occasion is not going to depend in direction of the world rankings.
The actual chase begins on the China Open in August, the place rating factors will as soon as once more be on provide.
Murphy is aware of that overtaking Trump and the others would require an distinctive marketing campaign and doubtless a number of match victories.
However the former world champion clearly believes that the chance to lastly grow to be world primary is there to be taken.
Featured picture credit score: WST
