The Premier League - The Rocket`s first victory

Cue-Man-Fu is on top!

It was definitely a great night for snooker, as in Penrith Marco Fu was fighting Ding Junhui and Ronnie O`Sullivan was taking on Mark Williams. For those of you who watched them last night, you know what I’m talking about and for those of you who didn’t get the chance, then come on, I’m going to tell you what happened. :-)


The evening started with the Chinese battle: "Cue-Man-Fu" on one side and “The Chinese Sensation" on the other. Both of them had 4 points in their pockets, but Ding felt the pressure even more as this was his only left chance to gain some more points and secure himself a place in the final stages of this tournament.
The match started very smoothly for Fu, who won the first frame by firing in break of 11, 39 and 44 and ... it continued about the same way for the rest of the night. The second frame was opened with a 42 break hit by Marco, the end of it giving Ding a chance to win his first points, in the form of a tiny 17 break. However, he succeeded in potting a very difficult red and a very tight black, showing a lot of style and determination. Still in the end, Fu cross doubled a red and closed the frame with a break of 39 for a 2-0 lead in only 26 minutes.


The next frame was started with a series of safety shots, but Ding was the first to miss in securing his position, so his opponent came to the table for a 19, 13 and a 33 break. The score was becoming 3-0 and Ding could only hope for a draw in this situation.
And it looked like it was about to happen as he rushed in the next frame by potting ball after ball. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long, as he missed a red, this allowing the Hong Kong cue man to hit a 94 break and take the lead by a 4-0 scoreline. Fu won the match in that moment and earned two more precious points.

Not a very lucky night for Mark Williams

This was starting to smell like a whitewash, but Ding wasn’t going to be humiliated the second time in two weeks so he made a spectacular 71 break in the forth frame. If only he would have played like that from the beginning of this match! The last frame was won by Marco Fu, who also succeeded in hitting his first century break in this competition (107).
A very nice and well deserved victory for Fu, who is now in the top, with 6 points. On the other hand Ding’s run in this year’s Premier League ends here, for he has only 4 points and those are not enough to qualify for the semis. :-(

But the match of the evening was yet to come, as Ronnie O`Sullivan and Mark Williams were preparing to enter the arena. We saw a very determined "Rocket" as he told the reporter he wants to win and...by all means, he did! :-))
The fist two frames were Ronnie’s from bottom to the top. There’s no doubt about that, as he hit breaks of 98, 44 and 78 for a 2-0 lead and a beautiful start. 

O`Sullivan - happy for his first victory

In the third frame, time had come for Williams to score his first points. Yeah, you heard me well! Until that moment, the Welshman was sitting quietly in his chair just coming for two or three times at the table but being unable to pot a ball. At that point the scores looked something like 222-0 in favor of Ronnie. Can you imagine that? Pure madness! The Rocket was on fire!
So, I was telling you that Mark succeeded in scoring his first points, points that also meant he won his first frame for a 2-1 scoreline. However in the next frame “The Welsh Potting Machine" wasn’t as his best for a combo of mistakes and highly risks brought Ronnie to the table for a 70 break. At 74-38, Mark was in need of one snooker, but his second attempt failed so he decided to conceal the frame.


The fifth frame began with Mark missing a red using the rest and this giving O`Sullivan the opportunity to hit a 39 break. Still, "The Rocket" missed in potting a long red and so the odds seemed to favorite the Welshman. But he didn’t took full advantage of his position, as he only scored 15 points, no enough to overcome the next 50 break hit by "The Rocket". At 4-1, Ronnie had earned his 2 most wanted points!
However, Williams won the last frame with breaks of 34 and 40, for a final score of 4-2.
So, O`Sullivan is once again on the run for the semis and maybe even for the big final due to take place at the end of next month. It was a spectacular comeback and a very well deserved victory.


Next week the Premier League will reach the town of Weston-super-Mare, where another great four snooker players will fight for a place in the next round: Marco Fu v. Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy v. Mark Selby.


And since Marco Fu had such an amazing evening yesterday, we shall dedicate him this song: :-P