After a shock first round loss to an amateur at the UK Championship, Snooker star Shaun Murphy declared “amateurs should not be allowed in professional tournaments”.
As you can imagine the reaction did not gone down well.
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Murphy, runner-up in this year’s World Championship, fought back from 5-1 down only for 19-year-old Chinese amateur Si Jiahui to win the deciding frame, to take it 6-5.
The 39-year-old, who was world champion in 2005, couldn’t hide his displeasure after the loss, telling BBC Radio: “I am going to sound like a grumpy old man but that young man shouldn’t be in the tournament.”
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Si was invited to compete in the 128-man tournament as an amateur top-up in the field and dropped off the main tour at the end of last season.
“I feel extremely hard done by that I have lost to someone who shouldn’t even be in the building,” said Murphy, the 2005 world champion, following a match that finished close to midnight local time Tuesday.
“This is our livelihood. This is our living. We are self-employed individuals… It is wrong, in my opinion, to walk into somebody who is not playing with the same pressures and concerns I am.
“He played like a man who does not have a care in the world, because he does not have a care in the world.
“I am not picking on him as a young man, he deserved his victory. Amateurs should not be allowed in professional tournaments, the end.
“It is not fair, it is not right.”
The World Snooker Tour, responded by saying they “strongly disagree” with Murphy’s comments adding Si, although an amateur, deserved a place based on his results.
“He trains and competes full time in the hope of earning a guaranteed tour place, therefore they are competing under significant pressure with no guarantees.”
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However, reigning UK champion, Australian Neil Robertson, said he sympathised with Murphy.
“When you’re playing one of the Chinese boys, some of them are amateurs, but some are as good as anybody in the top 50 in the world,” he said.
“Amateurs are under a completely different pressure where there’s actually no pressure, because they’re not competing for ranking points.
“They’re basically on a free hit at a pro, so I completely agree with what Shaun’s saying there, because it is very dangerous.”
The comments caused a stir in the UK, with commentator Piers Morgan weighing in on the matter over Twitter.
Retweeting the news, Morgan captioned his tweet with: “What a massive baby.”
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