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Published 12:33 24 Nov 2021 GMT
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"I am going to sound like a grumpy old man but that young man shouldn’t be in the tournament," Murphy told BBC Radio 5 Live after his 6-5 defeat in York. The 39-year-old had trailed 5-1 at one point in the match.
"It is not fair, it is not right... I feel extremely hard done by that I have lost to someone who shouldn’t even be in the building. I don’t know why we as a sport allow amateurs to compete in professional tournaments."
“This is our livelihood. This is our living," Murphy continued.
"We are self-employed individuals and not contracted sportsmen. We don’t play for a team. The other 127 runners and riders in the tournament, it is their livelihood too.
"It is wrong, in my opinion, to walk into somebody who is not playing with the same pressures and concerns I am."
"This is how I put food on the table. This is how I earn money. Since turning professional at 15, I have earned the right to call myself a professional snooker player. He hasn’t done that. He shouldn’t be on the table."
Murphy, who turned professional in 1998, is currently ranked sixth in the world and has earned just over £4.7m in prize money from the sport in his career so far. He won the 2005 World Championship as a qualifier and has won nine ranking titles. Si Jiahu was a professional from 2019 until the end of the 2021 season.Football

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