Murphy shows skill to cruise into final at the Hilton

Day through after tense semi-final with Ebdon Rotherham potter Shaun Murphy yesterday moved closer to chalking up his first ranking tournament title since becoming world champion two years ago after eliminating Ali Carter from the Malta Cup semi-finals.

Murphy's break-building skills were in full display at the Hilton Portomaso yesterday as he made two centuries and four more breaks over 50 to beat Carter 6-3.

Murphy's 2005 Crucible triumph remains his sole ranking title and today he will play in his third final - the other was at last season's Welsh Open when he lost 9-4 to Stephen Lee.

"When I lost in the final of the Welsh last year, I wasn't as fit mentally as I am now," the 24-year-old world No.5 told World Snooker.

"I wasn't on my A game and I couldn't stop him (Lee) playing. I have more in reserve now when my potting fails."

Murphy will face Ryan Day over 17 frames with the trophy and a £30,000 top prize up for grabs.

In a tense second semi-final at the Hilton Conference Centre, that came to an end at around midnight, Day beat Peter Ebdon 6-3 to book a place in a ranking tournament final for the first time in eight years.

Murphy, beaten by Carter in the round robin phase of the Grand Prix, could not have wished for a more confidence inducing start.

He smoothly secured the opening frame with a run of 111 before producing an 80 clearance in the second after Carter had overcut a short-range black.

It was 3-1 at the mid-session interval and on the restart Murphy picked up where he left off with a 115 break in frame five - his sixth century of the tournament after firing in three en route to beating Stephen Lee 5-4 in the last 16.

At that stage Carter looked to be heading for a heavy defeat but the trainee pilot then began to clip Murphy's wings.

Runs of 69 and 61 brought Carter back into the reckoning at 4-3 but his recovery was to be stopped in his tracks.

From the type of raking long reds that was such a trademark of his surprise success at the Crucible, Murphy regained the initiative by making a 76 and also applied the finishing touch in a single scoring visit with an 80 break in the ninth frame.

Carter, who had been attempting to book his debut in a world ranking final, was full of compliments for Murphy.

"I don't think Shaun can play much better than that. He hardly missed a ball and he cued really sweetly. I can't see anyone stopping him being the champion," declared Carter, who has the consolation of climbing from 31st to 19th on the provisional world list.

Murphy said: "It's very pleasing to see my hard work in practice paying off.

"I turned shots down that six months ago I would have gone for. I thought to myself that I'm in the lead and I don't need to throw my cue at anything. Often my next shot would be an easy red so it worked."