The Masters - Day 6

03:46:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The Nord-Ireland boy is in the semi-final
We are getting closer and closer to the final stages of this year’s Masters and with the last two quarter-finals matches ended, we have now the complete draw to know who’s going to fill up the second semi-final. Yesterday I was telling you that the Chinese Ding Junhui and the youngster Jamie Cope will meet in the first semi-final, and today I can tell you who’s going to meet for the second one - Marco Fu and Mark Allen. A bit surprised not to find the current world champion’s name in here? Well, this tournament has been all about the surprises and I think there are more to come ;-)


The 6th day started with quite a clash: Neil Robertson was taking on Mark Allen, Michaela Tabb being the referee in charge. Allen made a great 63 break, but missed frame ball and gave his fans a bit of a shock by doing so, but he was fortunate enough to still win the frame minutes after that. In the second frame he hit a 69 break to beat Robbo`s 36 and take his lead one step further, but the Aussie fought back and won the next two frames with breaks of 69, 66 and 24.


Robbo missed his chance to win the trophy
After the mid-session interval, Neil came to the table to take the lead for the first time in this match, as he hit in runs of 47 and 50, but the next frame was taken by Allen after a very "slow potting show". The game was losing its rhythm, but the boys were far out from being through with it.
Robbo took his chances one more time and cleared the table (71 break) to make the score 4-3 in his favor, but one again Allen drew with the help of a 57 break and an outstanding cueing. In the next frame, was Mark’s time to take the lead, by hitting a 75 break and putting quite a pressure on the Ozzie`s shoulders as the score was now 5-4.


Marco Fu had an exceptional night
Three hours have passed since the match started and the boys were about to close it. It was a very odd frame as Allen made a 69 break but missed frame ball. A lot of safety shots were involved in the equation, Robbo missed one of them, this giving his opponent a very good chance to win, but Mark decided to waste it and pot a red that was very tricky. Not succeeding in doing it, Neil came to the table one more time and one more time he missed the safety shot. This time though, Allen took the frame under his belt and the whole match for that matter. The final score was 6-4 in favor of the Nord-Ireland boy.


The Dutchman Jan Verhaas was the ref for the Peter Ebdon v. Marco Fu match, and what a match that was! I have to honest and admit that I though this match will be a veeeery long one, but what do you know?! It wasn’t! Marco Fu whitewashed Peter Ebdon bottom to the top. He won 6-0!!! Can you imagine? Obtaining that scoreline in a quarter-final match? At the Masters? It was insane! :-))
Peter had some really good opportunities during the first two frames, but missed so many important balls that Fu`s breaks of 91, 23 and 33 made him the leader of the match with a 2-0 scoreline. Next stop it was easy tasking, as Marco hit an 80 and a magnify 107 to end the first session with a 4-0 lead. Peter was in trouble already!


Ebbo fighting with a nasty flu and a poor shape
The 5th frame started with Fu making a 39 break brutally interrupted by missing to pot a long red. Peter came to the table but missed to pot a red into the right middle pocket, Fu made a mini-break of 18 points and the score was 37-62 in favor of the Hong Kong cue man. Ebbo was in a desperate need of two snookers that he tried and tried to obtain, but in the end Fu ended the frame, now being with one foot into the semis. The second foot followed :-)) after the 6th frame, when breaks of 15 and 57 made Marco the king of the arena. Peter admitted his loss and concealed the match. It was all over for the poor Ebdon who is fighting with a very nasty flu these days.


So today is a very, very important day as the semis will kick off, so please make room for snooker in your busy schedule. ;-)


13:00 (UK time) - Marco Fu v. Mark Allen
19:30 (UK time) - Jamie Cope v. Ding Junhui


TV coverage
13:00-16:30 Masters Snooker - Semi Final (BBC 1)
13:00-16:30 Masters Snooker - Semi Final (British EuroSport 2)
16:30-18:00 Masters Snooker - Semi Final (BBC 2)
19:30-22:30 Masters Snooker - Semi Final (Biritsh EuroSport 2)
20:45-22:30 Masters Snooker - Semi Final (BBC 2)
00:30-02:30 Masters Snooker: Highlights - Extra (BBC 2)

Online snooker at www.fromsport.com

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