Liverpool’s Stephen Bunting has lost in the first round of the Players Championship Finals in Coventry.
The 30-year-old fell 6-4 to Ryan Murray despite taking an early 3-0 lead. The result comes as a shock with Bunting 71 places higher than his opponent in the world rankings.
The Liverpool born pro got off to a great start in the match. After winning the first set, Bunting then threw his first 140 of the match in the second set. He would then go on to win the next two rounds.
However, Scotland’s Murray soon began to find form and managed to hit numerous 140’s of which he eventually finished with 13. The scot started his magnificent comeback in the fourth set where he finished the round by hitting 104.
The 33-year-old continued to hit 140’s as he went on to win the his second set and the fifth of the game. Then in what would be the closest round of the game, Bunting made it 4-2 as the sixth set came to a close after standing at 20-8.
Unfortunately for the scouser his lead would not last for much longer. Murray went on to hit two consecutive 140’s as he won his third set of the game. This brought the game to 4-3 with four rounds left to play.
Despite Bunting averaging 89.63 during the game the next set also went to the Scotsman. Straight after the 30-year-old hit the treble 20, Murray came back with a 140 to virtually tie the round.
The world number 97 then went on to take the set with Bunting left with 40 on the board. This meant the scores were level for the first time since the first round.
Murray went on to take the final two sets. However, it didn’t come easy to him with the world number 26 hitting the only two 180’s of the game in the final stages.
With a final result of 6-4, Ryan Murray is now through to the next round of the competition which takes place all weekend on ITV4.
