Stephen Hendry snooker blog
Posts tagged Marco Fu
Fu marches into Championship League winners’ group
0850 days
by Rob Swan
in Uncategorized
Marco Fu advanced into the Championship League winners’ group for the first time last night with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Neil Robertson in the Group Four play-off final.
Robertson had been tipped by many as a potential winner in this year’s Championship League, but the Australian was comprehensively beaten by an in-form Fu at Crandon Park last night.
The 32-year-old Hong Kong player stormed to a 1-0 lead in the final with breaks of 59 and 67; and then made it 2-0 with another impressive break of 70. By this point, there only ever looked like being one winner, and Fu made sure of his place in March’s winners’ group by not conceding a single point in the third and final frame.
It was a deserved victory for Fu, who had been in blistering form over the two days. A remarkable total of six centuries – including a 144 against Ali Carter in the round-robin, before a break of 110 in his tense semi-final against Mark Williams yesterday evening – made him the clear outstanding performer in Group Four.
Fu now joins Stephen Maguire, John Higgins and 2009’s Championship League winner, Judd Trump, in the winners’ group. If he can reproduce his group form in March, Fu will have to be considered as one the favourites to win the event.
However, the Hong Kong star has an unfortunate tendency of falling at the final hurdle in tournaments. Whether this is down to nerves or other factors, the general consensus is that Fu should have more trophies to his name by this stage of his career – he’s undoubtedly capable.
And it’s been a mixed start to 2010 for Fu after his exit in the first round of the Masters to Peter Ebdon; but this Championship League win should boost his confidence.
Meanwhile, Robertson will have another chance to qualify for the winners’ group after finishing second to Fu in the play-off final. He will compete in Group Five of the Championship League and will be expected to at least reach the final again.
Williams and Ebdon will also be in Group Five, though, along with Mark Allen, who won half of his round-robin matches in Group Four.
Rob Swan
Selby and Ebdon storm into quarter-finals
0861 days
by Rob Swan
in Uncategorized
Mark Selby, the 2008 Masters champion, and former world champion Peter Ebdon overcame their opponents in the second round of the Masters to ensure that at least two Englishman will compete in this year’s quarter-finals.
Selby saw off the challenge of the current UK Champion, Ding Junhui, in the first of Sunday’s two matches. The Jester from Leicester was in blistering form throughout the match and needed just seven frames to send the Chinese 22-year-old crashing out of the tournament – winning the tie by six frames to one.
Coming out to the Wembley crowd to Underdog by Kasabian, Selby’s progression to the quarter-finals was rarely in doubt. In fact, the song choices should really have been reversed – Ding came out to Eye of the Tiger by Survivor but finished the bout looking more like Clubber Lang than Rocky Balboa.
Selby went 5-0 ahead after dominating the first five frames – his pot success percentage immaculate, well into the high 90s.
Ding showed glimpses of his fighting spirit and capitalised on a rare slip-up from his opponent in the sixth, doing brilliantly to clear up after Selby had amassed a break of 53.
But this was as good as it got for the Chinese snooker star, as Selby finished the job in hand in the seventh to set up a mouth-watering potential quarter-final against John Higgins or Mark Allen.
Next up at Wembley was Ebdon, who was looking to make it to the quarter-final stage of the Masters for the first time since 2008 after last year’s crushing 6-0 defeat in the last 16 of the competition against Ali Carter.
However, after a terrible first two frames it seemed as if the 39-year-old was on course for another disappointing Masters performance, as his opponent, Hong Kong’s Marco Fu, took a 2-0 lead.
Ebdon managed to regain his composure after another series of errors in the third – fortunately for The Force, Fu made his own mistakes in that frame to allow the Englishman back into the match.
He then levelled proceedings in the fourth after a break of 47 as the two players went into the mid-session interval at 2-2 – a scoreline that Fu would have been kicking himself at – the crowd equally as bewildered as the Hong Kong-born star at how Ebdon had managed to sneak back into contention.
However, Ebdon returned after the interval a different player, and finally began to make his presence felt inside the arena.
Breaks of 66 and 63 and in the third and fourth frames, respectively, fired Ebdon 4-2 in front. And in the crucial seventh frame, the Briton withstood the pressure exerted by Fu to put himself 5-2 ahead, just one frame off a place in the quarters.
Any hopes that Fu had of mounting a late comeback were quickly extinguished as his opponent accelerated into top gear. An impressive break of 93 in the final frame was more than enough evidence to suggest that Ebdon should never be ruled out of contention, as he secured a 6-2 win along his place in the next round.
But his biggest test will come on Thursday afternoon as he gears up to face the winner of the clash between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Neil Robertson – tomorrow afternoon’s match which promises to be the stand-out tie of next round.
Rob Swan
Purple Ronnie makes Championship League debut
0865 days
by Rob Swan
in Uncategorized
Ronnie O’Sullivan, who hit the headlines earlier in the week after it was revealed he will defend his Masters crown with a bizarrely purple-coloured cue, endured a disappointing end to his Championship League debut – after suffering defeat in his final two matches of the evening.
The outspoken snooker idol was defeated 3-1 by Ali Carter and 3-0 by Neil Robertson on Wednesday evening, but prior to that, beat Mark Selby 3-2 and Marco Fu 3-0 in Group Two of the Essex tournament.
Displaying glimpses of his best form, including one particularly eye-catching century of 138, the 34-year-old sealed £700 in prize money after winning half of his 14 frames.
Despite beating the Rocket, Carter had earlier slipped to a 3-0 defeat to the reigning champion Judd Trump, before an equally uninspiring 3-0 whitewash at the hands of Selby.
Perhaps the 30-year-old was saving his best form for the current Masters champion, as he needed just four frames to produce one of the shocks of the evening at Crandon Park.
However, Carter did see off John Higgins, 3-1, in the opening match of Group Two, bringing his prize money total to £600 at the end of the session.
Meanwhile, the Australian, Robertson, could only muster one victory on his first day of the tournament; but it came against the star name.
A 3-0 demolition of O’Sullivan will have inspired a lot of confidence ahead of the Masters. The pair are set to meet in Round 2 of the famous tournament on Tuesday afternoon for a place in the quarter-finals.
Group Two will resume – and conclude – today, with the likes of O’Sullivan, Robertson, Selby and Higgins all vying for a place in the winners’ group.
Rob Swan
Hong Kong Fuey a world champ in 2010?
0873 days
by Elisabeth
in Uncategorized
About five years ago, Swedish Eurosport snooker commentator Kim Hartman predicted Marco Fu from Hong Kong would be a world champion within the next years. The prediction has yet to come true.
The first jaw-dropping event involving Fu happened in 1998 when he, as a 20-year-old, beat Ronnie O’Sullivan and Peter Ebdon in Grand Prix and reached the final. He also qualified for the World Championship that year. In 1999 he became WSA Young Player of the Year and WPBSA Newcomer of the Year.
He appeared in the top 16 for the 2000/01 season but dropped out just as quickly. The prediction about him becoming a world champion one day didn’t seem as convincing anymore.
Hope was born anew when he reached the quarter final of the 2003 World Championship and then three years later the semi-final. Fu seems to have an affinity for the Crucible. Every now and then he appears in the World Championship and does extremely well. In recent years he has also won the Grand Prix (in 2007) and was the runner-up in the 2008 UK Championship. He’s now back in the top 16.
Fu definitely has the potential of becoming a world champion but something seems to be missing. Ability to control his nerves perhaps? Who knows, if he can become a complete player and use his talent to the max, he might be lifting that trophy sooner than we think.