Marco Fu produced a fine display to win the Australian Open, beating World No.1 and clear favourite Neil Robertson to win what could be the last Australian Open. Marco thoroughly deserved to win the event, which is his first for 6 years since his only previous ranking title: the 2007 Grand Prix.
Match Review:
Marco Fu 9-6 Neil Robertson - Marco made a decent start to the match with a lovely 98 to give him the opening frame. Neil hit back with 78 and a 92 to put him 2-1 ahead in the final, before an 80 levelled the match at the Mid-session in the opening session. Fu took the next 2 after the break to take an early 2 frame lead at 4-2. Robbo hit back once again with a 57 to beg Marco back to 4-3, before Fu restored his 2 frame lead at 5-3, with a very scrappy frame to end the opening session.
Robertson started the next session brightly with another 57 to reduce the gap again to 1 frame. Fu then restored the 2 frame advantage in the next with a 58, after an earlier Robertson 60, and made the score 7-4 with a 70 in the next frame to put the Hong Kong star 2 away from his first ranking event in too long. The home favourite hadn't given up and took the next couple of frames to make the score line more favourable for the Aussie at 7-6 with only 1 in it. Marco wasn't fazed though taking a scrappier frame to go within a single frame of the Australian Open title. As with all great winners Fu sealed the deal with a fantastic 102 century to take a well earned 9-6, making Marco Fu the Australian Open champion. Fu should enjoy this victory, and one that he has worked hard for in the last few months now that he has an extra mouth to feed. Well done Marco. Unlucky to Neil, he would have wanted this more than anyone, to win his home event would have been as good as any of his ranking titles to date, so it was unfortunate that he couldn't win it on this occasion.
As I mentioned earlier, with the contract for this event running out after this one, and very little support for it, it is doubtful the contract will be renewed. Therefore, i'm going to debate whether or not the tournament should continue.
Reasons for it to continue are obviously because, if the game is to grow as a global sport it needs this event to continue, as the only ranking event in this part of the world. However, it would need the support of the games top players to draw in the fans and make it worthwhile to run. In turn this would need an increase in the total prize fund, to make it worthwhile for some Pro's not already entering, to make the long trip out there, so it's kind of a catch 22 situation.
Maybe certain aspects of the tournament should or could be changed to draw more interest into the event. As Australia is such a huge place, a thought that springs to mind is to not have a fixed venue and take the tournament all over Australia. To make it more worth the travel, the event could do with being surrounded by a couple of smaller events so that the players are not simply travelling over for that event.
It is a very interesting debate and one I could go on all day about, but the talk will continue until an official announcement is made.
Overall the tournament was a pretty good one and in my opinion, it kind of proves that a tournament doesn't need all of the top players to provide good entertainment. It was nice to see Marco back winning again and playing well, and always good to see someone different in the winners enclosure.
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