FU FIGHTS TO SET UP ROCKET CLASH

24 Mar 2008 15:59:00

Marco Fu edged out Li Yuan 5-4 at the Honghe Industrial 2008 World Snooker China Open to earn a tie with Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Hong Kong’s Fu struggled with his game for most of the match against wild card Li, but prevailed in the deciding frame to progress to the last 32 in Beijing.

Li led 2-0, then Fu hit back to win four consecutive frames with breaks of 105 and 77. Li responded with an 81, then fluked the last red in frame eight and cleared the table for 4-4.

Both players had several scoring chances in a scrappy decider, but nerves seemed to get the better of Li and it was Fu’s experience which told as he took it 63-8.

"I didn’t perform well, in fact Li played better than me," admitted Fu, who beat O’Sullivan in the final of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix earlier this season. "If he’d had luck on his side in the last frame, he could have won.

"The balls didn’t run well throughout the match, they always seemed to be on the cushions. It was hard to make a 20 break. Li dealt with it well and his safety was good. I didn’t know much about him before, but every time I see the Chinese players they have progressed, so I expected a tough game.

"I’ve played Ronnie many times and I have a good record against him. He has a lot of fans here in China so it will be great to play him here."

Dave Harold had an even tougher battle against Jin Long but also won 5-4. Harold led 4-3 then Jin made a 115 in the next and looked set for victory when he was among the balls on 49 in the decider. But he played a loose positional shot on the pink, allowing Harold the chance to get back into the frame with a 41.

It came down to a riveting battle on the colours, and Harold knocked in fine pots on brown, blue and pink to seal the match at nearly 12.30am.

"I knew Jin was one of the best wild card players because he's been on the professional tour before," said former Asian Open champion Harold. "But I didn't expect as tough a match as that. It was a long game and I was getting tired by the end. Before the last frame I came out of the arena and ate a couple of bananas, which seemed to help."

Ricky Walden looked in trouble at 3-1 down against Yu Delu, but the Flintshire cueman fought back impressively to win the next four frames for a 5-3 success. Walden had a break of 107 in frame two and added 84 and 104 after the interval.

Mark Allen scored a convincing 5-2 win over Li Hang, enjoying runs of 69, 54 and 68. Northern Ireland’s Allen now faces Neil Robertson and said: "I’ve never played him before but I’ll go into the match with a lot of confidence. It should be a quick, aggressive game, a good one for the fans."

All eight of the professional players in action today won their matches - in contrast to last season when five of the eight wild cards were successful.