Murphy beat Ricky Walden, Stephen Lee, Graeme Dott and Ali Carter en route to reaching the final.

Prior to the 1988/1989 season no ranking tournament had been staged continuously outside of the United Kingdom (although the World Championship had been held twice in Australia).

[3] Held in December 2006, the UK Championship was won by Peter Ebdon, who defeated Stephen Hendry by ten frames to six (10–6) in the final.

[4] The defending Malta Cup champion was Ken Doherty, who defeated John Higgins 9–8 in last year's final.

[3] The qualifying rounds were played between players ranked outside of the top 16 for one of the 16 places in the final stage, at Pontin's Snooker Centre, Prestatyn, Wales.

[6] The successful qualifiers included Nigel Bond, Fergal O'Brien, Ryan Day, Marco Fu and Stuart Bingham.

[5] In the wild card round on 28 January, held between two Maltese players against two of the sixteen qualifiers,[7] Joe Grech was beaten 5–1 by David Roe in a match lasting two hours and two minutes.

[8] The 16 first-round matches on 28 to 31 January were between players ranked 1–16 and those who had made it through the qualifying stage and the wild card round.

[21] Shaun Murphy was 4–2 down on Ricky Walden when he compiled breaks of 50, 93 and 53 to win 5–4; the match was suspended for more than an hour because it had overrun into the evening session.

[23] Mark King, whose cue was recovered from Gatwick Airport and collected by a local airline for arrival at the Hilton Conference Centre three hours beforehand, beat Barry Hawkins 5–1 with an opening break of 76,[24] and Ryan Day defeated fellow Welshman Matthew Stevens 5–3 from 3–1 behind.

[26][27] In his 5–3 win over Ford Dott produced a 135 clearance in the fifth frame but said he was unhappy with the game being on the second table and it not being broadcast on television.

[28] The match saw Day lead 4–2 but O'Brien nullified his advantage with breaks of 65 and 101 to force a final frame decider.

O'Brien missed a difficult red ball shot to the middle pocket, allowing Day to win with a break of 55.

[28][31] In the quarter-finals on 2 February,[7] Day compiled breaks of 86, 93, 96 and 55 to beat King 5–1 and progressed to the semi-finals of a tournament for the first time in his career.

[33] Hendry revealed that a bout of gastroenteritis from consuming a chicken and prawn meal the night before for which he was given injections had affected his on-table play, whilst Carter entered the semi-finals of a ranking tournament for the first time since the 1999 Grand Prix.

[35] Murphy said he was pleased that extra practice gave him the confidence to attempt shots he would have tried six months earlier, "I thought to myself that I'm in the lead and I don't need to throw my cue at anything.

"[35] Carter said he was pleased to reach the semi-finals but was disappointed with his playing style, "I scrapped a couple of frames but Shaun is cueing very sweetly and hardly missed a ball.

[35][37] Day said afterwards that the match evoked memories of his loss to O'Sullivan on the pink ball in the first round of the 2006 World Snooker Championship, "I thought 'Here we go.

[43] The victory, according to Phil Yates of The Times, meant Murphy was an example of having attained a "Big-occasion breakthroughs are the stuff of sporting dreams but attempting to follow up on that success and throw off the one-hit-wonder tag can be nightmarish.

Frame two saw Day declare a foul shot to referee Terry Camilleri, after nudging the cue ball with the rest as it screwed back.

Murphy re-established a four-frame advantage in the sixth when Day was out of position on a red ball shot while on a break of 20.

"[41] He cited the additional practice and guidance he sought from Higgins and BBC commentators Dennis Taylor and Willie Thorne in improving his break-building technique after ending the partnership with his coach Steve Prest as a reason for winning.

[42][44] Although Day said he was disappointed not to win he was happy to reach his first career ranking final and was looking forward to the Welsh Open.