Murphy cruises into top 16 at inaugural Int'l Championship

 Murphy cruises into top 16 at inaugural¹ Int'l Championship

CHENGDU, Sichuan Province, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Former world champion Shaun Murphy cruised into top 16 with a 6-0 whitewash² of Andrew Higginson at the inaugural International Championship here on Sunday.

Breaks of 67 and 45 gave Murphy the first two frames and he looked set to add the third until he broke down on 52. However, Higginson also missed the pink ball when leading 67-59, only to allow Murphy to take the third frame and never look back.

"We (Higginson and I) practice together and we are good friend. I'm pleased to get through and hope to maintain that standard this week," said Murphy, who will meet the winner of home favorite Ding Junhui and Zhou Yuelong in the second round.

Australia's Neil Robertson also advanced to the second round after beating Ryan Day 6-3.

Chinese wild-card players staged a relatively³ convincing performance as three out of seven entered the first round following hard-fought victories.

Lu Haotian overcame a 5-2 deficit⁴ by winning four frames in a row to beat world No. 41 Michael White 6-5, while Zhao Xintong upset former world champion Ken⁵ Doherty 6-5 though he squandered⁶ a 5-2 lead.

In an all-China clash, Cao Yupeng also came from behind to defeat Wang Yuchen 6-5.

The inaugural International Championship, the richest tournament ever staged in China with prize money of 600,000 pounds, will run through Nov. 4.

1 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

2 whitewash   

v.粉刷，掩饰；n.石灰水，粉刷，掩饰

参考例句：

• They tried hard to whitewash themselves.他们力图粉饰自己。
• What he said was a load of whitewash.他所说的是一大堆粉饰之词。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

5 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

6 squandered   

v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He squandered all his money on gambling. 他把自己所有的钱都糟蹋在赌博上了。
• She felt as indignant as if her own money had been squandered. 她心里十分生气，好像是她自己的钱给浪费掉了似的。 来自飘（部分）