SHEFFIELD, England, 29 April 2005 — Peter Ebdon, who came under fire for slow play in his victory over reigning champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, picked up the pace to gain an early 3-2 edge over Shaun Murphy in the semifinals of the World Snooker Championship here yesterday.
O’Sullivan had been angered by the snail-pace approach of Ebdon, the 2002 champion, in recovering from 8-2 down to triumph 13-11 and reach the last four on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.
But the opening frames against Murphy were far more fluent and Ebdon established a 3-1 advantage in barely 70 minutes of action.
Ebdon showed no early effects of his grueling battle with O’Sullivan.
He drew first blood with runs of 47 and 30 in a 20-minute opening frame in the best-of-33 showdown.
Murphy was undoubtedly the fresher of the two players after beating six-times world champion Steve Davis with almost a session to spare on Wednesday.
It was the first time that the 22-year-old, who had also knocked out another former world champion in John Higgins, had tasted the one-table environment in The Crucible.
But he quickly opened his account in the next despite initially breaking down on 34 when attempting a slow red and a 43 clearance brought him back on level terms.
The Rotherham-based player, whose pre-tournament odds had been slashed from 150-1 to 11-8, failed to convert a red when bridging over another ball in the third and Ebdon’s 78 to the blue edged him back in front.
Ebdon unsurprisingly looked full of confidence after his win over O’Sullivan - and certainly was playing at a considerably quicker pace.
And he went into the mid-session interval holding a lead after an opening 70 in the next left Murphy requiring snookers.
The second semifinal, which starts later Thursday, features Welsh sixth seed against England’s Ian McCulloch.
