Mark Williams, Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Peter Ebdon line up in Torquay today to contest the penultimate round of the European Open, which has no sponsor and is not on television. However, that will not distract snooker's ‘Fab Four’ from producing their best as each player has his own agenda for wanting to collect the title and a £44,000 first prize at the Palace Hotel tonight.
O'Sullivan and Ebdon, who meet in tonight's second semi-final, have not won a ranking title between them this season. Hendry and Williams have their own game of one-upmanship to maintain their interest in the opening best-of-11 frames semi-final in addition to the little matter of heading the provisional world rankings.
O'Sullivan, despite his lack of success in ranking tournaments this season, starts overwhelming favourite to defeat world champion Ebdon. The 27-year-old world number one compiled three century breaks in his second round victory over Dave Finbow and last night fired in a 139 clearance to finish off a 5-2 success over Scottish Open champion Stephen Lee in the last quarter-final. O'Sullivan wasted no time getting the tournament back on schedule after Ebdon laboured for three hours 28 minutes to knock out Mark King 5-4.
O'Sullivan's game was delayed by 75 minutes but despite the wait for several hundred spectators, the Rocket's fans were treated to another superb display. “It was a pleasure to play out there and it wouldn't have mattered to me had I not gone on until 11 o'clock,” said O'Sullivan, not normally the most patient of individuals.
A war of attrition is expected with Ebdon who has not won a major title since his world championship win last May. “We will just see how it pans out,” said O'Sullivan after booking his place in his first ranking semi of the campaign. I have two choices. I can either get frustrated if I get bogged down, or I can say it doesn't matter if we're here all night.” Ebdon admits his form is not the best, but he is prepared to grind it out to get the results. I am certainly a lot better prepared for this event,” agreed the 32-year-old second seed. “It's all about winning as many matches as I can between now and getting to Sheffield for the defence of my world title.”
Williams and Hendry meet for the fourth successive tournament with the record standing 2-1 in the Welshman's favour. And though Williams will start favourite, Hendry showed against John Higgins yesterday that he is still in fine form. Indeed, if he can recapture the brilliance that enabled him to beat his stablemate in the final of the Welsh Open back in January then the seven-times world champion could be back on course for a 35th ranking tournament victory. “I also want to get back to number one in the rankings,” said the Scot. “My main aim was just to get in the top four but if I have realistic aspirations of making it to number one, Mark is the player I have got to beat.”
The first player to six frames in each match will go through to tomorrow's sell-out best-of-17-frames final.
Filed by James Boylan.
