World Open 2014 - Murphy ends title drought in Haikou

Shaun Murphy has won his first ranking title for three years, putting in a stellar performance to beat Mark Selby 10-6 in the final to win the Haikou World Open 2014 on Hainan Island, China. 

Photos courtesy of Tai Chengzhe/World Snooker. All the results from the Haikou World Open can be found here.

After fluking the final black in a deciding frame against Graeme Dott in his quarterfinal match, it always looked as if it would be Shaun Murphy's week at the Haikou World Open (writes Stephen Kent).

The Magician then followed it up with a superb performance in the final to beat Mark Selby 10-6 and win a fifth ranking title, his first in since the 2011 PTC Grand Finals.

Murphy was the dominant force in the opening session, going quickly 4-0 ahead of the Jester, then shifting up another gear to make breaks of 98, 105 and 112 on route to a 7-2 lead heading in to the evening.

In typical Mark Selby style, he wouldn't go down easily and pulled the match back to 8-5 thanks to a run of 60, and then added a further frame after the interval to only trail close friend Murphy 8-6.

Selby had a golden chance to make it 8-7 but he broke down on 49, allowing Murphy in to make the clearance of the match to go 9-6 before sealing the match in the next frame with three scoring visits to win 10-6.

"All the pressure was on me when I was 7-2 up," said 2005 world champion Murphy. "I knew he would be fighting back and that I would have to wait for the chances to come to me.

"It was a good match today, we both played very well in parts. I'm thrilled to win a ranking event again, it has been far too long. All the extra practising recently has definitely paid off," added Murphy.

Selby, who has only won three out of his 11 ranking event finals he has contested, said: "That bad first session cost me. I played well to come back to 8-5 but Shaun was definitely the best all day."

Murphy's recent changes to his game seems to be paying off for him. Already he's won a Euro Tour event (Gdynia Open) and a ranking event this year and he looks to be playing his best, attacking snooker once again.

He will need to be playing well again soon as he takes on world No.1 Neil Robertson in his opening match at the PTC Grand Finals in Preston on the 25th of March. See the draw here.

Shaun 'Magician' Murphy - Haikou World Open 2014 Champion