Shaun Murphy kicked off the World Snooker Tour season in style by defeating Sanderson Lam to seal his spot at the Kaspersky Riga Masters.

The 35-year-old endured a tough end to the previous campaign as he fell to three successive defeats but he showed no signs of distress in Lancashire on Monday. The world number eight lost to Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-4 in the final of the Players Tour Championship in March, before suffering early exits at the China Open and World Championship to Chris Wakelin and Jamie Jones respectively.

However, after just over two months away from competitive action he returned with a bang at Preston’s Guild Hall. Despite his struggles towards the end of last season he did enjoy a strong campaign on the whole, having reached five finals, while he claimed silverware at the Champion of Champions in Coventry. The Harlow-born potter will be keen to emulate that kind of form again this term and he will get that chance in the Latvian capital after Monday’s triumph. Lam, who took a 2-0 lead, was eager to make life difficult for Murphy but the 2005 World Snooker Championship winner battled back and put on an impressive display.

He went on to claim breaks of 50, 98 and 58 to take a grip of the match and eventually ran out a 4-2 winner to claim his second successive victory over his compatriot. Murphy will be keen to keep building momentum in the second half of 2018 as he sets his sights on the UK Championship and he can be backed at 23.00 to win that event.