The Premier League: Fu is through
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| Fu is through but not by practicing Kung-Fu |
The evening started with the match between Marco Fu and the Australian Neil Robertson. It wasn’t the best match ever, but definitely not the worst, as I’ve seen many which will deserve that qualification better then this one. There were a lot of elementary mistakes involved and too many poor shots, but in the end not everything can be perfect.
The session was opened with a tiny break of 10 made by Fu who missed the pink and left the spot free for Robertson to start building a better break. And he did! A pretty good one, of 70 points to win the first frame. The next frame was won by Fu, with breaks of 27 and 35 and then...chaos was the main word as both players were struggling for some points and avoiding making mistakes. Pointless, as both of them missed really good opportunities to take the lead. In the third frame the score ended on 57-58 for Fu and in the forth, things got even more complicated as the score continued to be as tight as hell 82-83. This meant that Fu was taking the lead by 3-1, although those two frames weren’t the best he or Robbo have played in their career as professionals.
Marco had some really big problems with the right superior pocket, as many of the balls he wanted to pot there stopped by the edge of it. Now, of course that means that he miscalculated the force of hitting the ball, but still that pocket was written trouble on it all night long :-)) On the other hand Robbo had struggled to build high breaks. Losing his position, it was almost impossible to complete a good break, as he only had the opportunity to make a few shots (the last one being a safety one) and go back to his seat.
The fifth frame was the one where Fu really put his foot down, as he fired a 67 break for a 4-1 scoreline and so he became the first player to reach the semis. Last frame and Robbo was the man, with a 90 break to make the final score look something like this: 4-2.
This means that Fu is through to the final stages with 8 points in his pocket, but Robertson scored noone tonight, so he is still left with three lonely points. Hopefully he will make a "full recovery" (as I like to call it) in the last two weeks. :-)
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| Shaun Murphy v. Mark Selby 3-3 |
The match started with a break of 80 hit by Shaun, break that also meant he scored his first point. But Selby wasn’t going to stay in his seat so he won the next frame with a beautiful 100 break. Score 1-1.
Murphy was in a good form so he fired in breaks of 52 and 58 for a 2-1 lead, but Mark followed him with breaks of 31 and 29 for a 2-2 scoreline. Once more someone was going to take the lead, but this time "Mark the Shark" was the one, with a perfect break of 91.
At 3-2 things were pretty simple, it was going to be either a draw, either a victory. So what happened next was pure madness, as both players are so damn good in playing snooker. Although Selby started with what seemed to be a decisive winning break, he stopped at 56 points and then the battle begun. A combo of safety shots, snookers and “foul and a miss” were the key words which could better describe this last frame. It was a very unlucky night for Mark who gave Shaun 45 points due to the "foul and a miss" rule. In the end the score was 96-64, in favor of Murphy.
So another draw that means a point for each player. "The Jester" has earned 5 points and "The Magician" 4. Not very bad, but not a very good result also. These guys will need to play some really tough matches next and the pressure is on. But I`m sure they can do it! ;-)
The snooker caravan will reach the town of Grimsby next week and we shall be able to see the matches between Shaun Murphy v. Mark Williams and Ronnie O`Sullivan v. Neil Robertson. This should be interesting! ;-)
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