The 29-year-old was in mesmerising form on Thursday as he picked up a 5-1 win over the in-form Murphy in the quarter-finals with breaks of 135, 100, 66, 132 and 68 along the way.
The Magician has been in good nick himself, to say the least, and made a 128 in his only frame of the match, but could do little against the relentless break-building of the Leicester man.
Speaking in a social media video after the match, Murphy said: ‘It was truly remarkable. As I said to him after the game, that was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from anyone, ever.
‘I’ve been a pro since 1998 and I could count on one hand the amount of times somebody has played that well against me in any match, anywhere, of any kind.’
The players did share a moment at the end of the game, with O’Connor telling the same tale of the brief chat.
‘He told me to go on and win it,’ said O’Connor of Murphy. ‘He said it was a phenomenal performance and I deserved to win.’
It must be said that frame scores in Yushan this week tell the story of tables playing very generously. There have been a lot of big breaks, but O’Connor’s stand out as superb even in this environment.
The former pool star has been a rising force in snooker for a while now, reaching his first ranking final in 2022, then playing at the Crucible for the first time last year, where he memorably beat Mark Selby.
However, he hasn’t quite made that jump up to the real elite level, but could this week in Yushan be that leap?
‘If I carry on like this, why can’t I go on and win it?’ O’Connor asked. ‘I’ve got to try and keep it up, that’s the hard bit.
‘Shaun’s been playing so good this week, so to shut him out like I did, potted nearly all of my long pots and to punish from them, it’s something to be proud of.
‘Coming into the tournament I knew I was playing quite well, I’m in decent form. But that’s where everything started to come together and I started to play close to where I know I can.’
A quarter-final at the recent Welsh Open showed O’Connor was in good rhythm and he proved that with a brilliant 5-2 win over world number one Judd Trump in the third round this week.
‘Any time to play Judd is a nice environment, nice build-up, to come out the victor has definitely boosted my confidence,’ he said. ‘It also secured the belief that I already had and cemented the confidence I already had.’
Before the quarter-final in Wales and this fantastic run so far in Yushan it had been a pretty quiet season so far for O’Connor so has anything changed of late?
‘Not really, no,’ he said. ‘I have got a new cue. The first tournament was the Shoot Out, so I’ve not had that too long, but I’ve got on with that really quickly.
‘Other than that…practice-wise has been the same. I’ve been playing quite well the last year or two in practice, just waiting for it to come together and click on a good week.
‘The tour is so tough, there’s so many good players, so many people who can punish you first visit every time and it’s hard to get momentum going. It’s nice to be playing well at a good time.’
Friday against Ali Carter will be O’Connor’s fourth ranking semi-final so it is becoming familiar territory for him and his famously calm demeanour is unlikely to be rocked by the occasion.
‘I know if I can play well I can beat anyone on tour,’ he said. ‘I look forward to the next match, the next ball, that’s all you can do.’
The Captain will provide a stern test of O’Connor’s apparent step up to the next level, but as he says, if he repeats the form of Thursday then he will be nigh-on impossible to stop.
O’Connor and Carter meet at 11.30am UK time in the World Open semi-final in Yushan, with Zak Surety in his first ever semi facing John Higgins at 6.30am.
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