Meanwhile, Sunday’s second first-round encounter almost followed a similar pattern, with Murphy establishing a 4-0 advantage at the mid-session interval.
However, he was then pegged back to 4-3 by world number 16 Wilson, who had initially struggled to settle on his debut at the venue.
A break of 101 in little over seven minutes, plus further runs of 92 and 52, suggested that the momentum had shifted in Wilson’s favour.
Murphy, who won the Masters a decade ago, responded with a wonderful century break of his own in the next frame to stop the rot and his experience told in a nervy ninth frame.
“After the interval it did not feel very safe. I feel really proud of how I stood up and won that penultimate frame with a century,” Murphy told BBC Sport.
“You just want to get through. I have been working on my game and there are little green shoots of improvement, and there were moments I thought I played really well. In the end that burst of four frames was probably the difference.”
In contrast to a a visibly elated Murphy, who was quick to celebrate his win, Wilson cut a disconsolate figure.
“I am fed up. I didn’t even enjoy that. I didn’t enjoy playing, I didn’t enjoy the atmosphere,” he said.
“I enjoyed it in one sense when I was coming back, and the crowd were getting involved, but my game is just shot. I wasn’t cueing well.
“I feel a bit like Ding [Junhui] and Stephen Hendry, who have had problems, I am snatching at shots constantly. It wasn’t nerves. In another life you are thinking, ‘I’d love this, if I could cue properly I would be a really top player’. I just felt depressed out there.”
