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發表於 2007-10-19 10:20:54
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FU FIGHTER
18 Oct 2007 22:33:00
Marco Fu battled to a 5-4 victory over home favourite John Higgins to reach the quarter-finals of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix.
Higgins recovered from 4-2 down to 4-4 and led 37-0 in the decider, but could not complete the comeback as Hong Kong’s Fu progressed to the last eight in Aberdeen. He will face another Asian talent in China’s Liu Song who stunned Stephen Maguire 5-3 in a bad night for the Scots.
World No 1 and 888.com World Champion Higgins started a high-quality contest superbly with a break of 112. He made a 48 in the next before missing a red to a centre pocket and Fu responded with a fine 58 clearance.
Traded centuries - a 119 from Fu and 110 from Higgins - left them level at the mid-session interval. Fu, a Grand Prix finalist back in 1998, took a scrappy fifth frame then made the fourth century of the match, a 105, for 4-2.
That break could have been even better for world No 27 Fu - he was on for a maximum 147 but missed the black off the penultimate red with the balls apparently at his mercy.
Back came Higgins to 4-4 with 96 and 72, and he looked set for a match-winning break in the last until he ran out of position on 30 and missed a long red to a baulk corner.
Fu replied with 40 before snookering himself on the last red. His escape gave Higgins a difficult thin cut to the same baulk corner but his attempt narrowly missed. Fu kept calm to take his chance by clearing to the pink.
"I tend to play better against the likes of John and Ronnie," said Fu after recording his sixth win in nine meetings with Higgins. "It was a great match - John is nice to watch and that inspired me to play better.
"It’s always nice going into the match to have a good record against your opponent and I feel comfortable playing him even though he’s probably the best in the world right now.
"He made two good breaks to go 4-4 but I wasn’t worried because it wasn’t as if I had missed a chance. I just tried to keep my concentration and stay positive.
"Every time I get to a quarter-final I say I can go all the way but I’ve never won a ranking tournament so I don't want to get too far ahead this time. This result is history now as I have to focus on the next match."
As for his missed 147 chance, Fu added: "I cued across the black, I was a bit nervous and it was the kind of shot you can miss under pressure. But the main thing was to win the match."
Higgins said: "I’m disappointed because I had a good chance in the last frame. Marco is a mechanical kind of player but when he gets in the groove he looks like he’s never going to miss."
Liu registered perhaps the shock of the tournament by beating Crucible semi-finalist Maguire. The 23-year-old from Beijing, ranked 72, had never previously been beyond the last 48 of a ranking event.
The former world under-21 finalist, who plays in normal glasses rather than a snooker specific pair, made breaks of 80, 62 and 102 in sharing the first six frames. He stole the next from 49-0 down to go 4-3 up then clinched victory on the blue in frame eight.
"It was a very important match for me," said Liu, based at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. "I tried to relax and just play rather than thinking about it, but when I went 4-3 up I knew I had a good chance to win.
"I missed an easy pink off the second-last red but I got another chance. Ding has won three ranking titles and is well known in Britain, but now I’m in a quarter-final so I’m happy."
Joe Perry booked a quarter-final berth against friend and practice partner Gerard Greene after seeing off Tiptree’s Ali Carter.
The Chatteris cueman knocked in breaks of 90, 64, 58 and 52 to clinch a 5-3 victory and reach the last eight - as he did last year when he lost out to eventual runner-up Jamie Cope.
"I’ve never played Gerard in a match but we hang out a lot and know each other’s game inside out," said Perry.
Peter Ebdon advanced to the quarters with a 5-2 defeat of Dartford’s Barry Hawkins.
The Dubai based player raced into a 3-0 lead with the aid of a superb 61 clearance in frame two. Hawkins pulled it back to 3-1 then Ebdon made the highest break of the match, a 103, to move to within one of victory.
Hawkins took the 44-minute sixth frame but Ebdon secured a quarter-final match-up with Shaun Murphy when he wrapped up victory in frame seven.
http://www.worldsnooker.com/tournament_news(id18970)-80.htm
[ 本帖最後由 StupidPhilip 於 2007-10-19 10:25 AM 編輯 ] |
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