Murphy ends Rocket's Premier League reign

Shaun Murphy is 8/1 at best with Paddy Power to retain his UK Championship title after ending Ronnie O'Sullivan's reign as Premier League kingpin in Norfolk.

Murphy picked up four successive frames to claim a 7-3 triumph over the Rocket and £51,000 in prize money at the Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton-on-Sea.

"It feels amazing," Murphy told premierleaguesnooker.com. "It would have been a great achievement for Ronnie to win it six years in a row and he deserves a lot of credit to win it five years in a row.

"After losing a 3-0 lead I was about to go into panic mode had it not been for my manager Brandon who said the right things to me - I might've twitched up had it not been for that."

Sale-based Murphy suffered four straight first-round defeats at the start of last season before a spectacular reverse of fortunes saw him prevail in Telford 12 mnonths ago, beating Marco Fu 10-9 in the decider.

But he will return there in good heart this time, with the second biggest tournament of the season starting on Saturday.

O'Sullivan has been eased out to 7/2 with Sky Bet after the Premier League defeat, with world champion John Higgins 13/2 here and Stephen Maguire a 9/1 chance.

"I'm disappointed but Shaun was strong, scored very well and looked confident around the table so he deserved to win," declared the Rocket.

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Tags: John Higgins, Premier League Snooker, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ronnie O’Sullivan Betting, Shaun Murphy, Snooker, Snooker Betting, Stephen Maguire, UK Championship