Shaun Murphy will play Ronnie O'Sullivan in Sunday's Champion of Champions final after coming from 4-2 down to beat Luca Brecel 6-4 in a thrilling showdown at Coventry's Ricoh Arena.
Murphy hadn't previously won a match in this event in four years prior to this year's group stages and followed up his victories over Mark King and Michael White on Tuesday with a hard-fought win over the impressive Belgian, who had knocked out Mark Selby and Judd Trump earlier in the week.
Brecel led 4-2 but a key moment came in the next frame when a fantastic 131 clearance saw Murphy cut the deficit to within one before taking the next three on the bounce to progress.
"I needed patience at the end, and it was important to be calm and maybe that was the little thing that I had tonight what Luca, naturally at 22 doesn’t have that," said Murphy.
"Since Ronnie came on the scene in the early 90s, he has been the ultimate challenge in snooker. He has been the ultimate benchmark for players to test themselves against and he blew the field away at the English Open last month – 98% pot success in the final and he missed only six shots in the match.
"I will come tomorrow and try my best, give it everything I have got and enjoy myself. It is about forgetting everything else and just remembering we are two men having a game of snooker. I knew what I was going to get tonight, you know how Luca is going to play – he is a phenomenal player, a great potter, a great scorer. I don’t think it is a question of if he will be a major champion, it is a question of when. He is a great talent and a really nice lad as well."
It will be the first final the pair have contested since the 2009 Premier League as O’Sullivan goes for his third Champion of Champions title, while Murphy appears in his first final here.
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