Doherty back on terms after Crucible comeback
Ken Doherty took five consecutive frames to turn a 6-3 deficit into an 8-6 lead over Marco Fu in the 888.com World Championship semi-finals, but the Hong Kong player again showed he is no pushover by fighting back to 8-8.
The sort of form the Irishman had produced to knock out Matthew Stevens was in evidence again before Fu made his second century of the match, a 110, to ensure parity ahead of tomorrow’s conclusion.
Graeme Dott is within three frames of a place after building a 10-6 lead over Australia’s Neil Robertson at the Crucible Theatre tonight.
The Scot, runner-up in 2004, won each of the first two sessions by a 5-3 margin on a day when Ronnie O’Sullivan was warned for swearing and title-holder Shaun Murphy suffered a nightmare.
But before the prospects of O’Sullivan and Murphy winning the crown again are resolved tomorrow, Dott could be through for he resumes in the morning within sight of the 13 frames required.
When the ‘Pocket Dynamo’ held an 8-3 advantage it looked as though he could see off Robertson with a session to spare, but the qualifier dug in with breaks of 71 and 62 to keep his hopes alive.
This afternoon’s matches involved the quartet who have won the six renewals of the tournament since 2000 and O’Sullivan ended the first session level at 4-4 with Mark Williams.
After the opening two frames had been shared, each player making a single visit to the table count, ‘The Rocket’ vented his frustration in the next.
A poor positional shot prompted an audible obscenity from the world number one, earning him snooker’s equivalent of the yellow card from referee Jan Verhaas. Any further outburst during the rest of the match would result in Williams being awarded a frame.
O’Sullivan missed an easy brown and went 2-1 down before the Welshman extended his lead with a break of 67, but after the interval the 2001 and 2004 champion showed more of his quality.
He trailed 4-2 when Williams, after potting the opening red in frame seven, knocked his head on the table in despair as he ran out of position and O’Sullivan took full advantage.
Breaks of 45 and 79 ensured the 30-year-old from Essex was all square going into tomorrow morning’s second stint.
On the other table, Murphy, aiming to become the only first-time champion to have successfully defended the crown, found himself 7-1 down to Peter Ebdon in a repeat of last year’s semi-final.
The South Yorkshire crowd, firmly behind Rotherham-based Murphy, was left stunned as he simply never got going until the last frame of the session when he made a decisive 64.
But despite his huge advantage, there was still disappointment for 2002 champion Ebdon as he missed the chance of a maximum 147 break in frame seven.
After potting 12 reds and 12 blacks, the Dubai-based 35-year-old left himself a tricky pot into the middle, bridging over another ball, and agonisingly saw it hit the jaw of the pocket.
