'He'll need to tell us his secret' - analysing Murphy's new break-off

Shaun Murphy is into his fifth World Championship final and is bidding to win a second world title 21 years after his first.

Murphy has advanced past Fan Zhengyi, Xiao Guodong, defending champion Zhao Xintong and four-time winner John Higgins to reach the showpiece match against China's Wu Yize.

During that run, he has repeatedly pointed out that he is a "better and more astute player" now than when he lifted the World Championship trophy in 2005.

In recent times, the 43-year-old has benefitted from having 2002 world champion Peter Ebdon in his corner, worked on the tactical side of his game and experimented with using multiple cues at tournaments.

More recently, he has been using a different break-off technique - hitting the third red.

The premise behind Murphy's tinkering with the opening shot of a frame is simple.

He wants to apply immediate pressure on his opponents by ensuring they do not have a "shot to nothing" - a chance to go for an opportunistic pot while getting the cue ball safe - and avoid a protracted bout of safety.

It is an approach that has got the snooker world talking and is clearly reaping dividends.

The new approach meant Higgins had just five attempts at pots from the 16 frames in which broke off during his semi-final, while the Scot gave up double that amount from his break.

In the aftermath of the semi-final, Higgins said: "His break-off was just too tough for me to deal with throughout the whole match. He'll need to tell us his secret."

Speaking to BBC Sport earlier in the tournament, Murphy said: "I'm convinced there's a better shot than the one we've been playing for 100 years. It's 100 years of professional snooker this year and the break-off hasn't changed.

"You always leave either the standard 'shot to nothing' or a long red, or you drag one up over the middle. One of those three things usually happens.

"I'm not sure if my shot is better and it's certainly not new - Steve Davis was doing that throughout the 1980s.

"The most famous frame, the 1985 last frame [in the final between Davis and Dennis Taylor], that's how he broke off. I haven't created anything new. It's a bit embarrassing when you get it wrong, when you're going off or hit the blue or whatever, but it certainly poses a few new problems.

"Since I've been doing it, I've lost one frame from the break-off so that is a massive improvement."

Earlier in the week, Australia's Neil Robertson said: "It's something I'm actually excited to work on because I think Shaun's on to something new for the first time in 40 years."

Six-time world champion Davis added: "I don't know whose idea it was to change the break-off, but they [Murphy and Ebdon] don't just practise it a bit, they really go into depth to try to work out how best to break off the balls.

"Where to put the cue ball to hit that third red, to get the best split, and they would have had to have played loads and loads of breaks, resetting the balls, talking about it - and that had to be on a table that was on the same quality as the ones at the Crucible."