The Masters - the final

07:38:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Ding Junhui, the 2011 Masters champion
The 2011 Masters edition has come to an end after 8 days where snooker has been not always at its best, but it kept us glued to ours tellies or computer screens :-)) It was such an amazing edition with a lot of surprises and a lot of world premieres, a big example in that direction being the final - a very Asian one, by all means. China’s golden boy, Ding Junhui and the cue man from Hong Kong, Marco Fu were the two gladiators who entered in the Wembley arena cheered by the audience to fight like true professionals for that shiny trophy. The battle was intense, the snooker was top class and many times it was even breathtaking - it was a top drawer final :-)


With the Welsh Eirian Williams as the referee and John Parrott and Willie Thorne as the commentators, the first session of the final made its start.
Ding opened the score by taking the first two frames, the first with an 120 break and the second with a 74 one (the pink got in the Chinese’s way of making a bigger break), but the 3rd one was dominated by Marco who scored his first points, closing with an 80 break. The next frame started with Ding’s 62 break, interrupted by missing a tricky red, continued with Fu`s 31 one interrupted by missing a double intent and ended with "The Chinese Sensation" victory, who not put him in the lead 3-1.
The boys entered the mid-session interval, while BBC 2 was showing us a beautiful short documentary about this year’s two finalists and the highlights of the 1998 Masters final, a final that was disputed between the Scot Stephen Hendry and the Welsh Mark Williams. Such wonderful moments! :-)


Marco Fu, the 2011 Masters runner-up
Shot after the break was over, Dennis Taylor and Stephen Hendry took over the commentary box as Ding came to take over a very scrappy frame, where making high breaks was quite a challenge (the biggest one was 20!), but Fu won the very next one with a very sure and steady 82 to reduce the gap at just 2 frames. The 7th frame started with a very bad cueing by Marco as he practically flied the cue ball and missed to touch the indented red, this giving Ding a huge opportunity to score some points; and he hit a 60 break to make the score 5-2 and a 70 one in the next frame to end the first session with a 6-2 advantage. It was speed and high top snooker from China’s number 1!


The evening session made its debut with Stephen Hendry’s tale of the Masters and John Parrott and Steve Davis` review of what happened in the fist session of this year’s final, while the boys were entering the arena: firstly Marco Fu on "I’ve got a feeling" by The Black Eyes Peas and secondly, Ding Junhui on Lady Gaga`s "Poker face". This time in charge of the commentaries were: John Parrot and John Virgo.
Fu rushed in to take over the first two frames, by firing in breaks of 69, 38 and 56 and make the score 6-4. The Hong Kong resident meant serious business and he was starting his comeback! But during the next frame something happened: Marco hit a 39 break, Ding a 22 one, a safety shots battle was now part of the equation, battle that Marco lost, this giving Ding the chance to make another break (this time a 32 one). Marco returned to the table to pot a superb long red and some more balls, Ding committed several "foul and a miss" that meant 4 points for his opponent (many times) and here we were - the score was now 58-72 in favor of Marco and Ding needed just one snooker. 

Ding giving hist first interview to John Parrott
The little Chinese succeeded in obtaining his most-wanted snooker, but Marco potted the cue ball by mistake, this giving Ding the possibility to reposition the cue ball where he wanted, so he pot the pink and the black to take over a frame that was initially indented for Fu. This was the moment, when everything just felt apart for Fu...
Next frames were cashed by Ding with breaks of 94, 83 and 85 (final score 10-4) - the little Chinese was the 2011 Masters champion!!!! And what a great journey he had during these 8 days! And what a great journey he had during this wonderful and cracking final!


Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Barry Hearn handed the trophy to Ding, who had such a huge smile on his face! He was sooo happy! Can you blame the guy? He defeated Mark Williams, Graeme Dott and Jamie Cope to reach the final and the mighty Marco Fu to win the £150,000 and lift that beautiful trophy over his head. A wonderful victory for the Far East nations who will definitely have more of their players into the Top 16, very soon :-)
My sincere congratulations to both of the finalists! Marco Fu did an exceptional job, he had a wonderful run during the Masters, but Ding was the king of the Wembely arena, without any doubt! Well done! :-)


And to end this article, here’s Ding Junhui`s "I`m entering the arena" song :-)) Enjoy! :-P

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