This was one of those nip and tuck battles that looked destined to go all the way as the players traded frame for frame in over four hours of snooker action.
It had been Trump who seemed to be the more confident of the two,starting strongly before inexplicably missing frame ball red to allow Fu clinch the opener,but Trump quickly regained his focus to take the next two and lead 2-1.The fourth frame was a long drawn out affair lasting over 55 minutes,but eventually it went to Fu to leave it 2-2 at the interval
In truth the standard up to now hadn't been great but Fu rectified that in the next knocking in the highest break of the tournament so far,a 138, to move ahead 3-2.As was to be expected in this one though Trump fought back take the next to make it 3-3 before a century of his own gave him the lead once more at 4-3.
It was here once again though that we saw the difference between the Trump of today and the Trump of a couple of seasons back,as he failed to nail home his advantage,allowing Fu to take the next two frames and regain the lead at 5-4 with a high break of just 54.
Trump did manage to at least force the decider with another century but a tricky missed black off the spot while tight under the cushion allowed Fu in and he duly did enough to take his place in the next round.
This was another blow for Trump in what has been a disappointing season so far.You keep expecting things will eventually start to turn around for him but there is no guarantee they will.As for Marco he can now look forward to a quarter final clash with either Ding or Murphy.
In the evening session and it looked as though for the second night in a row we were going to have a Scot easing his way through to the next round when Steven Maguire raced out of the blocks to lead Joe Perry 3-1 at the mid session interval.That score was perhaps a bit harsh on Perry who hadn't done much wrong,but this was Maguire at his best and he quickly extended that lead to 5-1 on resumption of play
It looked only a matter of wrapping it up for Maguire and he looked set to do so in the next before a missed red allowed Perry in to make it 5-2.This seemed to change things a little and with the aid of a few minor mistakes from Maguire and a cooly taken century.Perry took the next two to make it 5-4.
It was a case of game on now,but Maguire managed to hold himself together enough in the next to make the decisive contribution he needed to seal the win 6-4 and he now awaits either Mark Allen or Neil Robertson in the quarters.
That brought the curtain down on another fascinating days action and I don't expect tomorrows servings to be any less entertaining,as the afternoon brings us Ding v Murphy and tomorrow nights seeing the return to the Masters of a certain Mr O'Sullivan.
No comments:
Post a Comment