Selby, world champion in 2014, 2016 and 2017 started the all English clash as favourite but it was Murphy who took the early lead after winning the first two tactical frames on the colours.

Murphy, world champion in 2005, looked on course for a 3-0 lead but missed a red allowing Selby to clear the colours and get on the board.

A break of 84 allowed Selby to level before the pair continued to trade frames until the final frame of session one when an outrageous fluke on the pink early in his break helped Murphy to open up a 5-3 lead.

In the evening session, the highest break of the contest so far, a 98, saw Murphy maintain his two frame lead at 6-4.

Selby levelled up at the interval helped by breaks of 67 and 86 and although Murphy struck the front again after the break it was Selby who dominated proceedings from this point.

A clearance of 90 helped him strike the front for the first time before Selby’s battling qualities and a stroke of luck in the form of a fluke on a red in frame 15 helped him win the last four of the day and open up a 10-7 overnight lead when play finished at 11.20pm local time.

The contest, scheduled to take place over the best of 35 frames and four sessions will conclude tomorrow (Monday).

The final is taking place in front of a capacity crowd as part of a pilot event by the United Kingdom Government to test ways to safely resume large-scale events.

Although the arena was able to host up to 980 fans today, only around 600 tickets were sold for the day’s two sessions, according to BBC Sport, although this number is expected to rise for the rest of the match.