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The 39-year-old, who was runner-up in the world championship
this year, fought back from 5-1 down to level the match but lost
the deciding frame to the Chinese amateur.
Murphy, who has won more than four million pounds ($5.34
million) in prize money in his career, vented his frustration
after the defeat in York on Tuesday.
"I'm going to sound like a grumpy old man but that young man
shouldn't be in the tournament," Murphy, known as the Magician,
told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"It's not fair, it's not right... 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're self-employed
individuals and not contracted sportsmen. We don't play for a
team."
Si is competing as an amateur due to falling off the main tour
at the end of last season and takes on 49-year-old veteran
Dominic Dale in the second round.
"The other 127 runners and riders in the tournament, it's their
livelihood too. It's wrong, in my opinion, to walk into somebody
who's not playing with the same pressures and concerns I am,"
Murphy added.
"He played like a man who does not have a care in the world,
because he does not have a care in the world. I'm not picking on
him as a young man, he deserved his victory.
"This is how I put food on the table. This is how I earn money.
Since turning professional at 15, I've earned the right to call
myself a professional snooker player. He hasn't done that."
Murphy later said on Instagram that he had been playing with a
severe injury.
($1 = 0.7484 pounds)
(Reporting by Christian Radnedge; Editing by Shrivathsa Sridhar)
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