And that meant there was the possibility of an all-Asian final at the Ladbrokes Mobile Masters, with China's Ding Junhui to battle England's Jamie Cope in the second semi-final this evening.

Fu went on a mid-match scoring spree to wipe out Allen's lead, and then held his nerve in tight ninth and 10th frames to knock out Irishman Allen.

Allen had opened with a 70 break to take the opening frame, before Fu fired in 82 to level the match.

The next three frames went Allen's way, but a 130 break from Fu in frame six was a reminder of his threat.

After knocking out Stephen Maguire in the first round, Fu had crushed Peter Ebdon 6-0 last night, and the century was the spark for his recovery.

He almost knocked in another ton in frame seven, but missed the green after reaching 97. Then came a brilliant 136 from the 2008 UK Championship runner-up to tie at 4-4 and leave Allen reeling.

A fluked brown made sure of the ninth frame for Fu, before he almost threw away the 10th, when he missed a routine red at 55-1 ahead.

Allen narrowed the gap to six points but missed the green. Fu took that, and added brown, blue and pink to complete his triumph.

Fu won the 2007 Grand Prix and was also a finalist at the same tournament as an emerging youngster in 1998.

The 33-year-old has struggled to find consistency during his career and is down to 18th in the world rankings, but he stands on the brink of lifting one of the sport's most coveted trophies.

"To me it's one of the biggest achievements I've ever had," Fu said after his win.

"Great champions struggle here coming to the Masters for some reason but everyone really wants to do well here.

"I rate this win as one of the best for me."

He was hoping Ding would come through his tussle with Stoke cueman Cope to make tomorrow's final a particularly special contest.

"It's going to be great," Fu told BBC2.

"I'm not sure whether that's been done before - two Asians - but it would be great.

"I played Ding in the first round at the World Championship one year (in 2008) and we had 100million people watching back home, so this one is going to be a lot more. Hopefully he'll win tonight."

Allen felt he was heading for the final when he built up his three-frame cushion.

"I probably was. I didn't really do much wrong," 24-year-old Allen said.

"From looking like having a good chance to go 5-1, in a matter of no time it went four each.

"In the last two frames everything went wrong and the runs of the balls completely changed. But Marco played very, very well and he thoroughly deserved his win.

"If he plays like that he's got a great chance of winning it."