Shaun Murphy outclassed his good old friend Mark Allen 9-6 to storm into the final of the International Snooker Championship in China's Daqing City on Saturday.  

His emphatic win in the thrilling semifinal helped him set up a title clash against current world number one Judd Trump, which is scheduled for later today. 

2005 world champion Murphy, who is known as the Magician, came out firing on all cylinders and soon jumped out to a big lead. Allen, however, made a strong comeback to make the contest a neck-and-neck battle.

Incidentally, Northern Ireland's Allen has reached the final three times at this premium event and won it all last year as well. But the 33 year old defending champion was out of sorts at the start and lost the first six frames before making a valiant come back. Allen gave himself hope by claiming the final two of the session to trail 6-2 going into the evening. 

When they resumed, Murphy grabbed a 7-4 lead to move one frame from victory before timely contribution of 94 kept Allen in the contest and cut the deficit to 8-5. 

Unfazed by his rival’s charge, Murphy eventually got himself over the line thanks to a break of 66 to complete his 9-6 win.  

The Englishman will compete for his first ranking title since the Scottish Open in December when he takes on Trump, who claimed the top spot with his emphatic series of performances in the ongoing tournament.