However the breakdown of his marriage last year, and his move to Sale, has changed the nature of his following.

The reason for the jeering of Murphy as he entered the arena today was unclear.

However the reception was significantly different to the manner in which he was treated by the crowd during his opening match against Andrew Higginson.

Once today’s match got under way, Murphy began with a break of 115 and then added the second frame after Hong Kong cueman Fu failed to clear the table.

After Murphy got in with 46, Fu replied with 58 but left a black in the jaws of a pocket and Murphy potted the colours from yellow to pink.

Fu responded with breaks of 60 and 47 to win the next frame, but Murphy took a hard-fought fourth to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.

Meanwhile Ronnie O’Sullivan was involved in a gripping battle with the North’s Mark Allen.

Resuming at 4-4 following a session last night in which O’Sullivan played mostly poor snooker, the world number one and defending champion knocked in a break of 107 in the opening frame.

He then added the next with runs of 34, 21 and 46.

But Allen, 23, made a break of 108 to take the 11th frame of the match and then stunned O’Sullivan by fighting back from 0-60 to win the next.

O’Sullivan had made a 60 break but was disgusted with himself after a poor positional shot which left the white in a cluster of two reds and the pink.

There was no pot available, and soon Allen was in to clear the table with a break of 70 to secure a 6-6 scoreline.

They returned from the interval and O’Sullivan resumed with a frame-winning break of 93.