Mark Dudbridge withstood another superb Wayne Mardle fightback to win an exhilarating Ladbrokes.com World Championship semi-final 6-4 in Purfleet tonight.
The 31-year-old, competing in this tournament for only the second time, led 4-1 and 5-3 but could never shake off Mardle, who had recovered from a similar position against world number one Colin Lloyd last night.
Mardle had been at least two sets down in all his previous matches at this event and when he pulled back to 4-3 and 5-4 it looked like another brilliant comeback was on the cards.
However, Dudbridge, nicknamed 'Flash' and the fastest-emerging player on the circuit, always had too much in reserve. Aided by 13 maximum scores of 180, he kept his nose in front and closed it out with a checkout of 80.
"It's an unbelievable feeling to be in the final," said Dudbridge, who was a complete unknown when he burst onto the scene by winning the Winmau World Masters in October 2002. "I'm buzzing from the toes up," he added.
"I feel for Wayne because most of the crowd were behind him and they weren't making it easy for him. They were willing him on and he wanted to do it for them, but that's the way it goes.
"It was a difficult match though and even though Wayne wasn't on his game he played a magnificent couple of sets to pull back."
