The 2005 world champion has now publicly disagreed with Wilson’s fury over his table scheduling.
Wilson, 32, was crowned world champ at The Crucible back in May.
Despite this status, he found himself playing on table two at the British Open, with Mark Selby‘s clash with Thepchaiya Un-Nooh given the session’s biggest billing.
After being eliminated by Elliott Slessor, Wilson took to social media to reveal his frustration.
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He wrote: “Same s**t different day, demoted to table two again and get found out! What benefits does a world champion get nowadays?
“Graveyard shift in Brentwood, table two in Saudi every game whilst being the number one seed there!
“Table two tonight in Cheltenham and being the highest ranked in the session… unfortunately nothing ever changes with the sport I love, if your face doesn’t fit… tough.
“People can have their opinions. Always been that you earn the right for the privileges. Apparently not anymore. I always try to promote the sport and be a good ambassador for it. What’s the point?”
Speaking on his onefourseven Snooker podcast, Murphy attempted to explain why he didn’t feel Wilson had been hard done by at all.
He said: “There is no such rule that says if you’re the world champion you’ll be on table one, or if you are the defending champion you’ll be on table one.
Mark Selby wins snooker frame with staggering 155 points to beat 147 maximum as opponent gifts him bonus points
“No such rule exists. There’s a couple of players that move the needle so much that when they play they’ll always be on table one.
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“It’s about time the players understood that it’s about which match is the most attractive, the most exciting, which is going to pull more viewers in and that’s the one that will go first.
“It’s no more complicated than that. Kyren asks what are the rewards for being world champion. You’ve got half a million pounds, that was your reward for winning the World Championship.
“And you’ll forever be known as a world champion, that’s your reward. It doesn’t entitle you to be on table one every match.”
Murphy and Wilson are both set to be in action at the Wuhan Open in China this weekend.
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The former will take on Anthony Hamilton, while the latter has drawn Liam Davies.
Allen’s clash with British Open chiefs came after his 4-3 win over Gary Wilson in round one.
‘EMBARRASSING’
The Northern Irishman, 38, had called the conditions “embarrassing” – and even said the tables should be “burned”.
In response Murphy, who sits on the WPBSA Players’ Board, said on his podcast: “The staff, there’s been a lot of talk that there are new fitters, and a lot of that is true.
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“Their job is to take a table off a lorry on a pallet, and they put the table together. Their job is to put that table together, have it installed, and get them as level as possible.
“That’s what is in their control. How a table plays, whether it’s heavy or not, whether we can spin the ball properly – that’s nothing to do with them.
“Some of the comments and criticisms about the staff, I find extremely distasteful.
“I thought they were bang out of order. These guys do an immense job.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has slammed Red Bull Racing‘s front bib adjustment device as “outrageous”, as he suggested the FIA may yet look further into the matter.
Red Bull was at the centre of technical intrigue over the United States Grand Prix weekend after it emerged the FIA was ramping up monitoring of a system the Milton Keynes-based squad has to raise and lower its front bib height.
While the presence of the device, which has to be adjusted by a tool, is allowed, what would be against the regulations would be for it to be changed under parc ferme conditions.
That is why the FIA fitted a seal to it over the Austin weekend to ensure it was not altered between qualifying and the race. Furthermore, the team has promised to make more permanent changes to its car for later this season.
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The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis says there is no indication that Red Bull used the device in the past, and so considers the matter closed. However, that may not necessarily be the end of the matter.
Wolff, whose team has battled Red Bull hard in the past, thinks that the situation is far from acceptable as he hinted that senior figures at the FIA – including its president Mohammed Ben Sulayem – may yet be pressured to take things further.
Speaking about the Red Bull system, Wolff said: “My view is, from the distance of what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, it’s outrageous.”
Explaining more about why he felt that way, Wolff said that it was highly suspicious for Red Bull to have fitted such a complicated device to its car, simply to help change ride heights in practice sessions.
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“I think we’re all designing parts that are F1 standard, and that are to the highest specifications that are within the regulations.
“Sometimes on things like aero elasticity, you would probably try to go as far as you can — but there’s other things overall and certain parts where you would question why they exist.”
He added: “Why would you design such a thing and put two marks on it for two positions, like you want to (change things)? Is that the precise decision-making [we have] in F1?”
Red Bull Racing RB20 front bib detail
Photo by: Andreas Beil
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A ‘Bugs Bunny’ tool
Wolff also suggested that Red Bull pulled off a charade in showing to the FIA a tool that it said was used to alter the device. He reckons that the settings could easily be altered in a much simpler way.
“I really like that when they put this real broom [device] in the car to demonstrate that that is the only way of that getting changed! I wonder how long it took them to make this up, and to stick it in there.”
One rival team has nicknamed the two-foot long socket that Red Bull showed the FIA a ‘Bugs Bunny’ device – because it seemed such a cartoon-type tool considering the sophistication levels normally expected in F1.
Wolff backed this idea. “I didn’t know that in F1, we were using such Bugs Bunny devices. It’s not good enough to say that this is it, and we promise that we are not going to do it again.”
He told the newspaper: “When I first heard the rumour of Lindsey’s comeback three days ago, I couldn’t imagine that you could ski really fast with an artificial knee joint.
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“But looking at it from a distance, I say: If anyone can do the seemingly impossible, it is the one and only Lindsey Vonn.”
Olympic legend and Tiger Woods’ ex Lindsey Vonn shares gruesome injury snaps in inspirational post about her career
Meanwhile, Austrian coach Sepp Brunner believes that Vonn is being “very ambitious”.
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He added: “I was able to watch Lindsey Vonn train gliding curves in a very ambitious manner on the Rettenbach glacier.”
Vonn made her Olympic debut back in 2002 at the games in Salt Lake City.
She won her Olympic gold medal in the Downhill event eight years later in Vancouver, Canada.
This success came the year after she won the World Championships in the Downhill and Super-G events.
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Between March 2013 and May 2015, she was in a relationship with golf star Tiger Woods.
She has since revealed that she found it “really hard” being with the golfing legend due to all the scrutiny they were under as a celebrity couple who were both at the peaks of their respective sports.
Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is moving into a new role from January, as head of global soccer at Red Bull – who own the Reds’ Champions League opponents RB Leipzig.
Will he feel a little torn when the two sides meet on Wednesday? To mark the match, we’ve produced a rather special quiz.
Yes, this isn’t just a simple true or false challenge. Oh no! It’s Good Klopp, Bad Klopp.
See a correct statement, click on Good Klopp. If you suspect a lie, Bad Klopp is the button. Enjoy!
Did you miss the debut of UFC 308 “Countdown” or just want to watch it again? Check out the co-main event preview now.
The segment takes a special look at the middleweight fight between unbeaten standout Khamzat Chimaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) and former champion Robert Whittaker (27-7 MMA, 17-5 UFC).
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UFC 308 (pay-per-view, ESPN+) takes place Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. “Countdown” goes behind the scenes with the two fighters, and you can watch the full segment above. And don’t miss the entire episode in the video below.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.
Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.
Ott Tanak says if team-mate Thierry Neuville is “smart” at the Rally Japan there will be no chance for him to claim a second WRC title despite Hyundai allowing its drivers to fight.
Both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles will go down to the wire in Japan next month after last weekend’s dramatic Central European Rally.
Neuville could have sealed a maiden world title if he had outscored Tanak by two points at the three-nation rally, but instead left with his 29-point lead cut to 25 after Tanak claimed a 21st career win.
It means the title fight will be decided on Japan’s asphalt roads with the advantage firmly in Neuville’s hands, while Hyundai leads Toyota by 15 points in the manufacturers’ race.
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Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul has confirmed that his drivers are able to do battle unabated in Japan, but is also eager to secure a first manufacturers’ crown for the Korean brand since 2020.
While Neuville has a significant advantage with 30 points remaining on the table, securing the title is not an absolute certainty.
“I don’t know what difference we can make but we will try our best, but with this scoring system it doesn’t make much difference,” Tanak told Motorsport.com.
“It is true [a retirement can change things] for sure, I guess it depends how much Thierry wants it.
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“If he is smart in Japan and does a good job then nobody has a chance, but we also have a responsibility for the manufacturers championship. It is still a big job ahead of us so we can’t really focus only on drivers title. We are responsible for the team too.”
Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport
Neuville was on course to beat Tanak last weekend to potentially clinch the world title before two errors in stage 12 dropped him from the lead to fourth.
Reflecting on a weekend where his lead over Tanak decreased, the Belgian believes he fulfilled his main objective of maintaining a comfortable championship lead.
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“If we look at our targets ahead of the event we completely fulfilled all of the targets by leaving here with a big lead in the championship for the last round, but also having finished the rally and taken some good Sunday points,” Neuville told Motorsport.com.
“So in that perspective we have achieved but nevertheless we can be disappointed because we were not able to keep the lead.
“If I look at the conditions we faced on Saturday and even on Sunday…I’m not sure on the last day, when the points are validated, I would have been able to go with the same risks as the others.
“It is a comfortable lead. The worst-case scenario we need to take six points. In any other scenario, we are pretty fine.
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“We need to find the right balance [in Japan] because there is still manufacturers’ championship to fight for and nevertheless we have that third car with Andreas [Mikkelsen] who will go for a push. We need to find a good balance between a safe but good drive.”
Regardless of the outcome of the drivers’ championship, Hyundai boss Abiteboul is relieved to have secured one of his two main objectives.
“What we can say is we are halfway on our objective we have secured a driver title we don’t know which one yet which is why we don’t want to celebrate,” he added.
“We have accomplished our mission so that is a relief and for the rest let’s see what we can do in Japan.”
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