Shaun Murphy was stunned by amateur Si Jiahui at the UK Championship in York on Tuesday
(Picture: Getty Images)Shaun Murphy has blasted snooker authorities for allowing amateur players to compete in professional tournaments.
The 2005 world champion suffered a huge upset against Si Jiahui of China in the first round of the UK Championship on Tuesday evening, losing a thrilling clash 6-5 at the York Barbican.
Afterwards, Murphy - beaten by Mark Selby in the World Championship final at The Crucible earlier this year - ranted that Si should never have been in the competition in the first place.
"I feel extremely hard done by that I have lost to someone who shouldn't even be in the building,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"I don't know why we as a sport allow amateurs to compete in professional tournaments. This is our livelihood. This is our living. We are self-employed individuals and not contracted sportsmen. We don't play for a team.
"The other 127 runners and riders in the tournament, it is their livelihood too. It is wrong, in my opinion, to walk into somebody who is not playing with the same pressures and concerns I am.
"He played like a man who does not have a care in the world, because he does not have a care in the world. It is not fair, it is not right.
"I am not picking on him as a young man, he deserved his victory. Amateurs should not be allowed in professional tournaments, the end.
"This is our livelihood. This is how I put food on the table. This is how I earn money. Since turning professional at 15, I have earned the right to call myself a professional snooker player. He hasn't done that. He shouldn't be on the table."
