Shaun Murphy beat Matthew Selt 6–0 in the first round of the China Open on the ninth of August, running up 607 points without reply at the Taiyuan Binhe Sports Centre in Shanxi province. It is a new world record for unanswered points in a professional match, overtaking the 556 that Ronnie O’Sullivan set in his 6–0 win over Ricky Walden in the quarter-finals of the 2014 Masters at Alexandra Palace.

That is a record that had stood for 12 years. Selt, ranked 44th in the world and playing as a qualifier, did not get a single point on the board until the sixth frame.

Top Image: Andrej146, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

How Murphy Did It

Murphy opened with a 61 to take the first frame, then reeled off runs of 132, 103 and 139 to lead 4–0 at the mid-session interval. He extended the sequence further in frame five with a 113, a break that began life as an attempt at a maximum before a difficult cut on the 15th black ended any hope of a 147. A 41 in frame six eventually gave Selt his first sight of the scoreboard, though Murphy closed out the match with a 55 regardless.

The four centuries Murphy compiled in successive frames also equalled the record for consecutive tons in a professional match, a mark that he had already set once before, in Newport in the February of 2007. He joins the likes of Mark Allen and Neil Robertson as one of only a handful of players to have reached that total twice.

“It’s like a cricket score, isn’t it,” Murphy told World Snooker Tour afterwards. “I’ve had golf scores closer to that. I can’t believe it, I’m over the moon.” He said he had deliberately avoided checking the record at the interval whilst still in the middle of his run, commenting, “If you find yourself in the bubble and in the flow, you just want to stay in it.”

Shaun Murphy had an early birthday present – beating a Ronnie O’Sullivan record.

He made 607 points without reply in his China Open opener – topping the Rocket’s 556 record.

Murphy, born August 10, said: “To be part of snooker history in this way is a great thrill.” #snooker pic.twitter.com/WhKPNlbGJ5

— Snooker Chat 🔴⚫🔴 (@Snooker_Chat) August 10, 2026

The record came three months after Murphy’s 18–17 defeat by Wu Yize in the World Championship final, the first Crucible decider to go the distance since 2002, closing out a 2025-2026 season in which he had also won the British Open and reached two further finals, at the Xi’an Grand Prix and the German Masters, where he lost 10–4 to Judd Trump.

Murphy, who turned 44 the following day, could mathematically move to world number one for the first time in his career before August is out, though that largely depends on plenty of results has no control over. A new points record makes for a good line in the history books, though, even if the ranking he has never held before would make for a considerably better one.