Shaun Murphy apologised to ITV presenter Jill Douglas with a bottle of wine and a card for “leaping down her throat” earlier this week.
But The Magician is in the blistering form to end a three-year title drought and get his hands on the champagne at the Players Championship. Former world champion Murphy admitted he was “unprofessional” in the television studio in a stinging response to a question about possible lapses in concentration. The world No.11 went into a rant about “lazy journalism” and branded any such claims “ridiculous”.
But ahead of a semi-final on Saturday at the Aldersley Arena in Wolverhampton a contrite and remorseful Murphy, 40, and a BBC pundit himself, publicly held his hands up. Murphy lost last Sunday’s Welsh Open final to Rob Milkins - but knocked in four centuries in a 6-0 quarter-final win over Ryan Day in the west Midlands.
