Congratulations to Chinese number 1 Ding Junhui who tonight defeated Marco Fu 10-4 to win his first Masters title at Wembley, four years on from that infamous final defeat to Ronnie O’Sullivan…
Resuming the evening session 6-2 behind, Marco Fu needed a quick start this evening if he was going to stand any chance of turning the match around and that is exactly what he delivered as he took the first two frames in under half an hour to reduce his arrears to 6-4.
Then came what proved to be a decisive 11th frame however as with just one red left, Marco pulled out a brilliant pot from distance before laying the perfect snooker on his opponent to turn the frame in his favour. Eventually a miss from Ding left it on and Marco cleared to the blue to leave his opponent needing one snooker to avoid seeing his lead cut to just one frame.
Crucially however, that is exactly what he got as he left the pink up near the green pocket and the white in behind the black. Not only did Marco miss with his escape, but he went in off and left Ding with an easy pink and black to steal an unlikely frame.
Now at 7-4, Ding was well in command again and in truth never really looked back as he closed out the three remaining frames he needed to secure his first Masters title and redeem himself following that infamous loss to Ronnie O’Sullivan here in Wembley as a 19-year-old.
In fairness to Ding, he looked to be the favourite almost from the first ball he potted this week and while he wasn’t one of the top 8 seeds, his pedigree as a proven winner has never been in doubt and this is further evidence of his ability t win the very biggest tournaments in snooker. Just the World Championship left…
For Marco meanwhile it is a disappointing result, particularly given the form he showed earlier in the week to defeat the likes of Mark Allen and Stephen Maguire, but he never really looked like winning today. It might have been very different had he made it 6-5 as looked like being the case at one point, but unfortunately we will never know.
Bring on the German Masters!