SHAUN Murphy produced some of his best snooker of the season by beating Stephen Hendry 4-1 to reach the final of the Brazil Masters.

Hendry came in to the match having rolled back the years in his quarter-final clash with Ali Carter. The seven-time world champion whitewashed his opponent 4-0 and narrowly missed out on a 147 maximum break.

The 42-year-old, who recently dropped out of the elite top 16 for the first time since the 1987/88 season, began his encounter with Murphy with a confident break of 84, and looked to be in the same form he had shown against Carter.

However, things began to go wrong for the legend in frame two when a miss on a long red allowed Murphy in to make a break of 111, which was only the third century of the tournament, due to the table playing far more slowly than is normal in the modern era.

Hendry’s confidence was shattered early in the next frame when he brushed his finger against a red, causing a foul to be called against him. He struggled to put this unfortunate mistake behind him and errors crept in with alarming frequency. Murphy’s 48 clearance gave him a 2-1 lead, and a superb long red while bridging over the black and brown began a run of 59 in the next which set him on his way to going 3-1 in front at the mid-session interval.

A dreadful break-off shot from Hendry at the start of the fifth was the start of a comedy of errors from both players in what became a messy frame, but runs of 22 and 27 put Murphy just one away from victory. An impressive break of 64 in the next put him through to the final, where he will face Graeme Dott.