Snooker

Day Twelve: UNBELIEVABLE DRAMA UNFOLDS IN QUARTER FINAL EPIC FINISHES

Mark Selby duly completed a 13-8 win over Kyren Wilson to book a place in the semi finals.
A 10-6 overnight lead quickly became 12-6 as Selby rattled in breaks of 78 and 92.
Wilson at the point of no return bravely pulled back to 12-8 down with the help of his highest career break of 143 which is also the highest break of the tournament so far.
It will be of scant consolation as a clinical Selby sealed the match with a run of 64 to keep his hopes of a second World Championship title alive.

Alan McManus has beaten 4 time champion John Higgins 13-11 to reach the semi finals for the first time since 1993.
McManus won the first three frames in the morning aided by breaks of 68 and 66.
Higgins levelled at 6-6 with an 80 break and took the next to retake the lead at 7-6. Back came McManus with a 66 for 7-7.
Higgins took the last two frames of the morning to restore the two frame advantage he had at the start of the day.
In the evening four tense frames were played out before the mid session interval and still Higgins held a two frame lead at 11-9.
McManus then produced some of the finest snooker of his career to win 4 frames in a row.
Breaks of 71 and 52 helped him draw level at 11-11 and then a sublime 128 took him to the brink of a stunning win.
And a break of 60 was ultimately key in enabling McManus to set up an all qualifier semi final clash with Ding Junhui

Marco Fu eventually edged into the last four despite a heroic effort from Barry Hawkins.
Starting the afternoon 7-1 in front Fu easily gobbled up the first two frames to go 9-1 up inclusive of a break of 71.
Hawkins broke off in frame 11 and fluked a red to right middle. Greeted by a smile from Hawkins and Fu and by ironic applause from the crowd .
Hawkins went on to win the frame but not in one visit.
He then won the next with an 86 and pulled a further frame back to trail 9-4. Fu responded by knocking in a faultless 136 clearance for 10-4. Hawkins gamely battled on though with breaks of 95 and 75 to trail 10-6 heading into the evenings concluding session.
Hawkins came storming back further in the evening.
Breaks of 50, 75 and 85 reduced his arrears to just one frame at 9-10 down. A misguided attempt at a difficult red was to prove costly for Hawkins in frame 20 though and Fu showed admirable composure to compile a run of 50 to go 11-9 before rattling in a 93 to take him to the brink of victory.
But then errors crept in and Fu missed countless chances to seal a 13-9 victory as Hawkins won the 22nd frame on the black.
Hawkins piled on more pressure with an 80 break to go 11-12 and got in first in frame 24 with a run of 60 before breaking down.
Fu cleared magnificently with a 74 to finally get over the line in a titanic late finish.

SEMI FINALS: (Best of 33 frames)

DING JUNHUI v ALAN McMANUS

MARK SELBY (2) v MARCO FU (14)

Glad Fu made it, because he was getting the dog's abuse from Mike Hallett & Phil Yates, quite appalling favouritism, especially in frame 22, where Fu was slagged off for missing "easy" shots that weren't, and every chance Hawkins got (and he needed heaps) was greeted as the natural order of things. I don't want to use the r-word, because I think that would be pushing it, but you could scarcely have got more partisan drivel if Vince McMahon was telling them what to say.

Anyway, interesting final 4, and well done to McManus - could this be his year?

My fear is that both semis could be one sided .
I hope I am wrong and both go 17-16 on a respotted black .

Probably likely to be a Ding-Selby final, admittedly, but given the oomph that McManus & Fu have put in to get this far, they should all go the distance, or close to it.

Ding seems to be moving up through the gears now.

Hallett at it again tonight:
Selby misses an easy shot = "oh that was quite difficult actually"
Fu refuses a hard shot = "I don't see why he didn't try that"

Day Thirteen - Semi Final 1: Ding Junhui v Alan McManus

Ding Junhui has ominously surged into an 6-2 lead with some devastating power scoring to leave Alan McManus under no illusions as to the task facing him.
The Chinese star rocketed into a 4-0 lead with runs of 100, 84, 131 and 62. Things got no better for the Scot after the mid session interval as Ding powered on.
He made his third century in five frames to go 5-0.
McManus got himself in a clear frame winning position in frame 6 to leave Ding requiring 4 snookers.
Ding played on to attempt getting them for an extended period which proved unsuccessful but also seemed to disrupt his rhythm as McManus pulled back to 5-2 behind.
But Ding reasserted himself superbly in the final frame of the session knocking in yet another century.
A statement of intent indeed.
6-2 overnight.

Semi final 2: Mark Selby v Marco Fu

Mark Selby shot into an early 3-0 lead against an initially out of sorts Marco Fu. Fu found a little bit of rhythm with a 72 break to win frame four and won a very scrappy fifth frame after a series of runs of the ball for both players which ended up with both players producing miraculous escapes from snookers on the yellow. The Fu escape actually left Selby a chance to go 4-1 but his attempted clearance failed when he missed the final blue.
Fu narrowed to 3-2.
Selby took another scrappy frame to lead 4-2 as both players were getting bogged down with balls going awkward.
The Leicester man got in first before breaking down letting Fu in...... could Fu take advantage?
Yes. Real bottle from the man from Hong Kong and excellent cue ball control to make a decisive clearance of 89 to trail 4-3.
Selby clinically won frame 8 though to seal a 5-3 lead overnight.

I watch the BBC interactive coverage, the commentary is better imo .

(28-04-2016 21:24 )snookered147 Wrote:  I watch the BBC interactive coverage, the commentary is better imo .

I quite enjoyed Peter Ebdon's brief bash at it, and John Parrott isn't too bad.

On the other hand:
in some 1st round match, there was some tapping on the table, an acknowledgement of a good shot -
Hendry: I never tapped on the table ever.
Virgo: No, me neither.
Quelle bloody surprise

Mc Manus played that last session with something stuffed up his right nostril. Seemed to do the trick.

Bad luck for Marco Fu knocking the tip off his cue.

McManus got 5 frames in a row to get it to 9-8 but a missed black in frame 18 let Ding back in and he has rattled off 3 in a row