So how do you cope with the Crucible pressure when stuck in the chair?
“The psychology aspect of snooker is enormous,” said Chris Henry, a subconscious brain and performance coach, who has worked with some of the sport’s biggest names including Murphy, Stephen Hendry, Mark Selby, Luca Brecel, Jimmy White, Ali Carter and 2026 debutant Liam Pullen.
“You have to be very mentally strong in snooker, you have to be tough and know how to deal with the situation. It’s not what happens that counts, it’s how you choose to deal with what happens.
“Snooker is a dead-ball sport so you have a long time to think about things, which is not always good. Being sat in the chair, feeling completely helpless is a terrible place to be, especially if you’re not playing well and feel embarrassed.
“It’s better to get out of that environment. Negative things are happening in the subconscious and you have to change to get into a better state.”
He advises “doing some breathing exercises, just to calm down and get into the performance state” in order to change from a negative to a positive state quickly.
Carter provided one of the best examples of quickly going from negative to positive when he found himself 4-0 down to John Higgins at the mid-session interval, gaining just 37 points in four brutal frames.
“I would’ve been quite happy to get in my car and drive home, I was absolutely seething,” said Carter afterwards.
However, after composing himself, Carter won all five of the remaining frames in the session against the four-time champion, although the Scot would eventually prevail 10-7.