Neal Foulds snooker column: ITV and Eurosport pundit heaps praise on Robert Milkins and Shaun Murphy

It’s been very much the Milkins and Murphy show over the last few weeks, and the success of both players has provided us with one heartwarming story and some of the best snooker you could ever wish to see played.

For Robert Milkins, winning the Welsh Open was the crowning moment in a career that had always promised plenty, but perhaps hadn’t quite delivered what was predicted in its early days. Milkins has always been a very good player, but he hadn’t won like his talent suggested he would, and I'm sure I wasn't alone in wondering whether his chance might never come.

Milkins handles big-money pressure

Of course, that all changed when he won last season’s Gibraltar Open, but to back it up by winning the Welsh Open less than a year later, picking up the BetVictor bonus in the process, is a remarkable achievement when you consider he is fast approaching his 47th birthday.

It’s such a lovely story. A normal, everyday kind of bloke, who likes a drink and a laugh, coming good in the twilight of his career and winning the sort of money that could set him up for life.

But with that opportunity came a huge amount of pressure and with so much on the line in the final against Shaun Murphy, he did not buckle. He beat a man who only a week later would prove to be unbeatable at the Players Championship and deserves all the good things that are coming his way.

That final in Wales, when adding the bonus he was playing for, was worth £230,000 to Milkins, but it doesn’t stop there, with his place in the upcoming Tour Championship almost guaranteed and a seeding at the Crucible now firmly on the cards.

He’s certainly in a strong position for Sheffield anyway, and I know getting back into the top 16 and qualifying automatically for the World Championship means a great deal to him. In fact, I know the last few weeks have meant an awful lot to him full stop and you could see that with how emotional he was after beating Murphy.

I was really thrilled for him and I’m not alone in that. Milkins is a popular man on and off the tour and he might not have finished for the season just yet.

As for the man he beat in Wales, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him play better. I know Murphy was disappointed with losing that final in Wales, but his form has continued to go the right way over the last few months and he was a magnificent winner of the Players Championship.

Brilliant Murphy deadly and dominant

It has been a season dominated by a few players at various stages of the campaign, actually, with Mark Allen enjoying a fine time of it through to the World Grand Prix, Judd Trump coming good in January, and now Murphy seemingly taking over the baton.

Just as John Higgins did in the Players Championship a couple of years ago, Murphy blitzed everyone to stand in his way last week, knocking in the five highest breaks of the tournament on his way to title glory. It’s a measure of how heavily he is scoring that he also made the two highest breaks at the Welsh Open before that.

His performance throughout last week was extraordinary and in truth, he was in a completely different league to anyone else. I’m sure that winning the World Championship as a 22-year-old qualifier will always be his biggest achievement, but in pure form terms, he is currently playing out of his skin and enjoying the best spell of what has been a fine career.

Still, I’ve seen and heard lots of talk about Murphy now being the man to beat in Sheffield. Like any number of the top players, he can clearly win the big one, but the World Championship is a completely different beast played over 17 days in a different format.

Perhaps Murphy will be able to maintain this hot streak, but nothing is guaranteed and like Allen, he won’t be as fresh as some by the time the marathon in Sheffield comes around. What we've learnt from the last few years, anyway, is that it isn't always the recent tournament winners who thrive at the Crucible.

Who can peak in time for Sheffield?

Neil Robertson was unquestionably the best player of last season, but he wasn't able to reproduce that same form in Sheffield, and I wouldn't be drawing any firm conclusions about Murphy or anyone else just yet.

Before then, I’ll be working on Eurosport covering the Six Red World Championship which begins in Thailand from Monday.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is all set to feature in a strong and diverse field which will feature female players and some locals to look out for. This format is hugely popular in Thailand and it’s really exciting to have snooker back in Asia for the first time since the pandemic.

It's a stepping stone, but fingers crossed that this is just the beginning in terms of snooker returning to China, a country where the game is loved so much by so many.

After that, we’ll back on ITV for the Tour Championship, now one of the most coveted tournaments on the calendar, with all roads then leading back to the Crucible and Sheffield.

There’s much to look forward to.

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