 Murphy began the 2012 / 2013 season ranked number six . The first tournament for Murphy was the Wuxi Classic , where he lost in the first round 1 – 5 against Ken Doherty . Murphy 's next tournament was the Six @-@ red World Championship , where he finished first in Group E with four wins out of five matches and advanced to the knock @-@ out stage . There he defeated James Wattana , Barry Hawkins , Dominic Dale and Judd Trump to reach the final , but lost 4 – 8 against Mark Davis . He then reached the quarter @-@ finals of the Australian Goldfields Open , but lost 4 – 5 against Peter Ebdon . Murphy gone one better in the next two ranking tournaments , as he reached the semi @-@ finals of the Shanghai Masters and the International Championship , but lost 3 – 6 against John Higgins and 5 – 9 against Neil Robertson respectively . Murphy than reached the final of the 2012 UK Championship courtesy of two tight victories . The first against teenager Luca Brecel in the quarter @-@ finals , after Brecel twice had the chance to pot the final pink and black to win the match , then against Ali Carter in which Murphy recovered from 4 – 8 down and 0 – 32 in points behind in the deciding frame to win 9 – 8 . He was ultimately defeated by good friend Mark Selby 10 – 6 in the final . He also participated at the Players Tour Championship , with his best result coming at the third English event , where he reached the semi @-@ finals , but lost 0 – 4 against Marco Fu . He finished number 29 on the Order of Merit , and couldn 't qualify to the Finals . 
