UK Championship: Marco Fu must dislike me, jokes Shaun Murphy

Shaun Murphy (right) beat Marco Fu in the 2008 UK Championship final

Shaun Murphy joked that Marco Fu must dislike him after the world number 14 ended his UK Championship run for the second successive season.

Fu won a thrilling, but increasingly nervy, last-16 match 6-4 against the world number four at the York Barbican.

The Hong Kong potter also beat 33-year-old former world champion Murphy at the same stage last season.

"He is a very good player and he always seems to play really well against me," Nottingham-based Murphy told BBC Sport.

"I really like Marco. I am not sure he likes me that much."

Fu made breaks of 93 and 104 to go in 2-2 at the interval and, despite falling behind, two successive 50s saw him build a 4-3 lead.

He closed out victory against the man who beat him 10-9 in the 2008 final to set up a meeting with either Liang Wenbo or Tom Ford in the last eight.

Fu, a two-time ranking event winner, said: "It was a high-quality match, especially at the beginning.

"We both scored very well, our attacking game was spot on and we both took our chances.

"Shaun started to feel the pressure when I was leading 5-3 so we were both missing a few too many towards the end.

"I saw the winning line and I was a little bit nervous. I needed Shaun to miss a few and was glad to get over the line.

"It is always nice beating a player of Shaun's calibre but last year I beat Shaun and got carried away because beating him was a big achievement.

"I didn't really recover. Hopefully this year I will not make the same mistake."