Shaun Murphy wins frame after pulling off unbelievable snooker escape against Zhao Xintong

Shaun Murphy won a frame in his World Championship quarter-final against reigning champion Zhao Xintong after pulling off a remarkable shot.

'The Magician' defeated the Chinese pair of Fan Zhengyi and Xiao Guodong to book his spot in the last eight against Zhao.

Zhao took a 3-2 lead into frame six, and looked favourite to extend his advantage after he presented Murphy with a difficult escape from a snooker.

The Chinese world number one managed to get the cue ball in behind the yellow in the baulk area, with the last remaining red tied up close to the bottom cushion.

Zhao was 53-45 down in the frame at the time, before Murphy gave up 16 points after failing to hit the red in four consecutive attempts.

Murphy had attempted to hit the red off four cushions, but then decided to change up his approach for the fifth attempt - to incredible effect.

'The Magician' decided to swerve the cue ball off the side cushion instead, sending it past the opposite side of the pink.

It then clipped the red, which went perfectly into the bottom right pocket.

To make things even better, Murphy was on a colour, and had the chance to clear up the table to secure what looked like being an unlikely frame win.

While that didn't come to pass, as Murphy missed the final brown, Zhao managed to miss a pink off the spot which would have won him the frame instead.

The 2005 champion therefore returned to the table and potted pink and black to level the scores at 3-3.

Commentator Steven Hallworth described Murphy's pot on the red as an 'unbelievable fluke', though 'The Magician' didn't put his hand on the table to apologise to his opponent - as is normally customary for a fluke.

"The fluke is an absolute corker," 1991 champion John Parrott told BBC.

"If we had a fluke of the championship, this might go in at number one.

"To come off the side there and chip that, and end up in position... unfortunately for Shaun, he didn't get it [the frame at that visit] there."