04 November 2019

Reanne Evans stages brilliant fightback against Shaun Murphy in Champion of Champions final frame shoot-out

Reanne Evans staged an amazing comeback to take world No 8 Shaun Murphy to a deciding frame in her Champion of Champions snooker debut.

Murphy raced to a 3-0 lead but Evans clawed her way back to make it level and set up a final frame decider.

But despite Evans' magnificent rally, Murphy built a tremendous 130 break to take the match.

She said afterwards that despite her defeat she was glad to have given young girls the opportunity to see her competing on TV.

"They've seen me out there. I've actually competed at the end and hopefully they can see themselves in my shoes in a few years time.

"I was getting really angry and frustrated with myself. I was playing like I was on a club table.

"I had to speak to myself and just say 'hit the ball, hit the ball'. It is difficult to adjust [to a different table] and when you're confident that's easier but when I was down on myself it was getting tougher and tougher."

The match was the first time a woman has played a man in a TV ranked elite tournament and Evans' participation fee was £12,500, a stark improvement on her World Title purse of £450 in 2012.

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