Murphy happy to avoid ‘a couple of grenades’ in World Championship draw

The 2005 winner of the competition begins his campaign against Lyu Haotian in the first round, and admitted relief at swerving the likes of Stephen Maguire and Jack Lisowski early on.

“There’s obviously a couple of grenades that you could have avoided – [Stephen] Maguire was one of them, [Jack] Lisowski another.

“I’m happy to have avoided those. After that, I mean it’s just take your pick, isn’t it? Lyu Haotian on his day can beat anyone, as can I.”

Murphy was grateful not to go through the arduous qualifying route, but is wary of facing someone like Lyu, who battled past Daniel Wells and Jenson Kendrick to make it into the main draw.

“I’m delighted to still be in the 16 and seeded through, not to have to go through the rigmarole of the qualifiers,” Murphy said.

“The other side of that is that the qualifiers who come through are sharp, they’re ready, they’re hungry, they’re at it.

“Like all first rounders, it’s going to be like that first fence at the Grand National.

“I haven’t been involved in the championship the last few years. I got to the final three years ago. I’ve lost in the first round in the last two championships.

“I either seem to have a really deep run to the semis or final, or get bumped out in the first round.

“So I’m hoping that I can buck my recent trend and get out of the first round, get through that melee of the first fence.”

Two-time Crucible semi-finalist Mark Allen was involved in the draw itself and picked out some of the standout ties involving the sport’s biggest names.

“There’s a couple of massive games there,” Allen told the BBC. “Luca [Brecel] vs [Dave] Gilbert to kick things off on Saturday.

“Ronnie [O’Sullivan] against Jackson [Page], who loves the big occasion. [Judd] Trump against [Hossein] Vafaei, Ding [Junhui] against [Jack] Lisowski a ridiculous match for the first round as well.

“What a match-up with Joe O’Connor [against Mark Selby], two Leicester boys, two good friends so that could be a good one as well.”

Allen faces an arguably less eye-catching opening showdown against Robbie Williams, but heaped the plaudits on the man making his fourth appearance at the tournament.

“Robbie is someone I’m a big admirer of actually and the way he came through that qualifier the other day from 9-8 down, he’s a class player but they’re all good players at the end of the day,” Allen said.