RESURGENT Jamie Cope is out of the World Championship after narrowly failing to pull off a shock victory over Shaun Murphy in a 19-frame thriller.
Cope made it through three qualifying rounds to reach the Crucible and led 5-4 from the first session.
And the Longton potter had the chance to move two frames clear when he made a break of 64, possibly thinking about compiling a 147 maximum.
But he let 2005 champion Murphy back in to clear with a 75 and level the match at 5-5.
Cope, aged 28, quickly recovered and took the next two frames to lead 7-5, but Murphy came back and drew level at 7-7 before Cope took the 15th.
Murphy took the next two to lead 9-8 and missed a difficult final red to clear for the win, allowing Cope to take it into a decider.
Murphy potted the white when he seemed to have taken the initial advantage and Cope went into a 49-35 lead with two reds left on the table.
Murphy, however, pulled back and made sure of his progress into the second round by potting the final red with the rest.
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