Marco Fu was the first man through to Sunday's International Championship final, with a nerve-shredding 9-8 victory over Joe Perry. Fu will now play either Ding Junhui or Graeme Dott, in this weeks finale, with Ding and Dott battling it out in tomorrow's second semi-final.
So let's have a quick look back on how Marco made it through:
Marco Fu 9-8 Joe Perry - As the score line suggests, this was no walkover for Fu, and Perry really gave him a tough game indeed. In fact looking back at how the match went, you kind of get the feeling that Perry may have blew his chance, after letting an early 5-2 lead slip, by losing the next 4 in a row, when he could've possibly looked to dominate. The first couple of frames were quite scrappy, but Perry dominated and took them both to lead 2-0. Fu managed to get himself into the game with a break of 60, before a break of 48 was enough to give Perry a 3-1 lead into the interval in the first session. A break of 83 gave Perry a commanding 3 frame advantage, before a break of 68 from Fu pulled it back to 4-2. An early break of 53 wasn't enough to give Fu the seventh frame and a brilliant 72 from Perry made it 5-2, guaranteeing Perry had some sort of lead at the end of the session, with 1 frame to play. The final frame of the session was very scrappy, as both guys knew it's importance, Fu did enough to take it, and keep himself in it at 5-3.
The final session started in a similar manner, but Fu dominated it and moved within 1 frame of Perry at 5-4. An early break of 48 wasn't enough to put Joe further in front, and breaks of 40 and 28 allowed the Australian Open champion to level the game at 5-5. This was huge for Fu, and it showed as he began to gain some confidence and made a break of 88 to lead for the first time at 6-5. Perry's fighting qualities started to show at this stage, having lost 4 frames on the bounce, as he made a brilliant 103 to level the game again at 6-6, at the final mid-session interval. Again another scrappy, and lengthy frame followed, which Perry eventually managed to win on the colours to go 7-6 ahead. An early break of 70 in the fourteenth allowed Fu to equalise once more, before several fouls followed up by a break of 47 put Marco 8-7 in front and 1 frame from the match. The sixteenth frame, once again saw chances for both players in what was another tense affair. However it was Joe that took it to force the final frame shoot-out. The decider was another lengthy affair, with both players having plenty of chances, but it was eventually Fu that took the frame and match on the colours, booking his place in the final, and the way he is playing he has a great chance of taking the title.
Second semi-final Preview:
Ding Junhui Vs Graeme Dott - This should be a great contest between 2 very good players. I think that Ding is a hot favourite, not only for this match, but for the tournament also, and I think really it is his tournament to lose, the way he has played in the last month. Ding has been superb this week as well, and showed yesterday that has also matured so much in the last year or more. Meanwhile, this is the first decent run that Graeme Dott has had in a ranking event for a while, and maybe he has turned a corner after a spell of poor form. From what I've seen he's played well this week, and he has every chance of beating Ding tomorrow. However, I just think that Ding is playing well at the moment, that it would take a snooker storm to stop him, and i'm not sure that Dotty is the man to provide it.
Prediction: 9-6 victory for Ding
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