Steve Sutcliffe
BBC Sport at the Crucible Theatre

Shaun Murphy is bidding to collect a second title, 21 years on from his first - having finished as the runner-up on his three previous appearances in the Championship match.

The first of those was in 2009 at the hands of the four-time champion John Higgins, who ran out a comfortable 18-9 winner.

There was considerably more tension against the same opponent in his semi-final this time around and, more importantly for Murphy, no repeat of the outcome as he roared back from a 13-11 overnight deficit and crucially reeled off four consecutive frames from 15-13 down.

"I am over the moon. I am exhausted. I was in a match with John, four sessions, a world semi-final, it does not get much more difficult than that," Murphy said.

"I knew I needed a good start and two centuries off the bat was good. Of course it counted for nothing because two frames later I was back where I started.

"I knew I had to go to the well again. I knew I had done it once and could do it again. I didn't expect to win all four after the resumption but I got my chances and scored well."

The World Championship final will be a best-of-35-frames match, starting this afternoon and continuing this evening before concluding on Monday.

Today's opening session gets under way at about 13:00, while the second is scheduled for 19:00.

There are also two scheduled sessions on Monday, with those also beginning at 13:00 and 19:00 respectively.

Image source, PA Media

Is it that time already?

You bet it is.

It's day one of the World Championship final at the Crucible Theatre.

Shaun Murphy and Wu Yize are the two that will battle it out for snooker's biggest prize over the next two days.

Two players at opposite ends of their respective careers but two equally desperate to etch their name into the history books.

Based on their performances at this tournament so far, we are in for an absolute treat.

Let's get this thing rolling.