I have to admit I was tempted to stick with Shaun Murphy at this week's Paul Hunter Classic after tipping him as a 25/1 each-way chance for the China Championship in Guangzhou.

He duly reached the final on Tuesday to earn us some profits but was well below-par as he went down 10-5 to Belgian prospect Luca Brecel, who claimed the first of what will surely be many ranking titles in his career.

Murphy and world number one Mark Selby are the only two players out of the current top eight taking part in Furth, Germany, in what appears to be another open field.

However, I believe losing to Brecel will have taken quite a bit out of the Englishman, whose only consolation was moving up to number five in the latest world rankings.

Plus when you consider the logistics of travelling from China to Germany, the quick turnaround with his first game on Friday, the long flight and the jet-lag then second favourite Murphy might find this next event a real struggle.

"Luca fully deserved to win because he played much better than me throughout," Murphy reflected on the official World Snooker website. "My potting was bad, my safety was bad, my tactical play was bad ... I just wasn’t good enough.";

Instead, I am going to throw my support behind tournament jolly Selby, who is the defending champion after beating fellow Leicester potter Tom Ford 4-2 in the final 12 months ago.