Down Under victory for Marco Fu

Marco Fu, the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open champion

Marco Fu beat world number one, Neil Robertson by 9-6 to win the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open trophy and thus put an end to a very looooooong period of "trophies draught".

Last time we've seen Fu win a ranking event title was back in 2006, when he managed to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan (ironically by the same scoreline, of 9-6) in the final of the World Open Championship (aka. Grand Prix, at the time). Since then, the Hong Kong snooker player has won the 2010 Championship League and was runner-up at the 2013 German Masters, where he lost 6-9 to Ali Carter (I can already see a pattern regarding this scoreline).

But this time, was different as Fu proved to be the toughest player this week and managed to beat both Kenny Doherty and the Smurf Shaun Murphy by 5-2, hammered Dom Dale 5-1 in the quarter-finals and overcome the dangerous Robert Milkins in the semis with a 6-4 final result.

Neil Robertson, the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open runner-up

The final's final (if I may say so), looked ominous, especially after the first round ended with the Fu master in charge at 5-3. But Neil wasn't going to make it easy for him, as the Australian-based player has wanted to win this event since its first (proper) edition, back in 2011.

So as the second round started, Robertson used runs of 37 and 57 to pull one back, but Marco was careful enough to restore the two-frame advantage and even open a three-frame one, by hitting in breaks of 58 and 70.

It was absolutely necessary (or as we all see in the job ads "a must") for Robbo to win the next frame, as the 15-minute interval was knocking at the door, so the Australian did just that, by using a top break of 59.

When returning into the arena, things got messy. So messy that it was more then clear that both players were in a lot of pressure. First we had Marco, who was favourite to win, but was fearing not to let his guard down in the process and second we had Neil, who was up for a comeback and wanted to win on home soil so much.

Marco gives the trophy a little kiss

A scrappy 13^th frame brought Robbo closer to draw at 7-6, but the second was proved to be a true battle of nerves, won by Marco.

The Hong Kong player was now just one step away from lifting the shiny trophy, but keeping in mind the last two horrendous frames, he kind of looked overwhelmed. Still, he did the unthinkable and hit a marvellous 102 break (total clearance), to stop the match at 9-6 and beat the current world number one.

With a considerable check of $70,000 in his pocket, but more than this, happy to be able to get a ranking event under his belt, Fu looks forward to enjoying the rest of the season. The curse has been broken!