Doherty out of the World Championship
Wednesday, 26 April 2006 19:22Marco Fu tonight became only the second Asian player to reach the semi-finals of the 888.com World Championship by recording a shock 13-10 victory over Ken Doherty.
The Hong Kong player emulated James Wattana as he maintained his status for being the tournament's surprise package, and now only Peter Ebdon or Shaun Murphy stands between him and the final.
Doherty, so impressive against Matthew Stevens in the second round, was hot favourite to win the match and at 8-6 up looked set fair to go on and complete a resounding win.
But Fu, a 125-1 outsider at the start of the tournament, has been producing some composed break-building in Sheffield and when he made a 110 to level it at 8-8 it was clear he would not lie down.
Today's play was largely tactical and two consecutive frames, which took the score to 10-10, lasted a total of an hour and three quarters.
After the interval, however, the 28-year-old qualifier took his chances when among the balls and contributions of 60 twice and 75 secured his progress.
"The frame I won to make it 10-10 was massive because Ken had come from three snookers down to steal the previous one," said the world number 24.
"The interval then came at the right time for me. I went to the dressing room, composed myself and came out really strongly. I had been prepared for it to go to the wire.
Doherty admitted he had missed out on a golden opportunity to repeat his 1997 World Championship triumph. "I blew it," said the Irishman. "I can't grumble because I had my chances.
"I'm very disappointed to have played the way I did after my performance against Matthew Stevens. I lost a lot of silly frames early in the match and sometimes they come back to haunt you."
