20.12.08

FU GETS CARTER

Marco Fu played solidly to reach the Maplin UK Championship final in Telford last night but Ali Carter must be very disappointed.

His missed pink in the eighth frame prevented him from building a 6-2 first session lead but is a bit of a red herring. If you'd have asked him at the start of play if he would accept a 5-3 advantage he would have taken it.

The key shot of the match actually came in frame 11. Carter was 35 behind with 35 on but, in potting the last red, cannoned into the brown and so was not on the black, which he needed to tie the frame.

The right shot was to pot the easy green and play for one snooker to tie. Instead, Carter went for a very difficult blue, which he missed.

He thus needed two snookers but, even though he didn't leave the yellow on, he conceded.

After this, the pressure seemed to get to him and Fu - whose temperament is very strong - held firm for victory.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i am agreeing with you too often these days. i agree that shot / shots at that point cost him the most and so led most severely to his defeat.

Anonymous said...

Talking about (wrong) key shots: why on earth did Stephen Maguire take on that difficult blue as a free ball instead of letting Shaun Murphy in again on a snookered red? It costed him the frame in the end...

cheers,
Eric