Fu knocks out O'Sullivan in thriller

Hong Kong sensation Marco Fu produced a brave performance yesterday to knock out Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-4 at the ongoing Snooker China Open at Beijing University Students' Gymnasium.

But Shaun Murphy was the talk of the day after producing the longest frame in snooker history in his 5-3 win over Dave Harold.

Fu, who struggled to beat mainland player Li Yuan 5-4 in the qualifiers, showed some backbone against the former world No 1. Both players had several scoring chances in a scrappy decider, but luck seemed to be on Fu's side as O'Sullivan made a sloppy error when leading 50-0, and the Hong Kong player stepped up to pocket the match, 66-50.

"I just lost it, there was nothing I can complain about," said O'Sullivan. "I'm human, so I made mistakes. I think I played well, Marco simply played better. But I enjoyed the match very much."

Fu admitted his opponent was not in his best form.

"He didn't concentrate enough," Fu said. "But it is not my thing, what I did is just to do my best and try to win the match.

"I have won some 5-4 or 6-5 matches this season, so I am very confident fighting into the last frame."

Record frame

Earlier yesterday, Murphy scored a frame lasting 93 minutes, surpassing both previous records for the longest televised frame (Mark Selby v Marco Fu, 2007, Maplin UK Championship, 77min) and longest in professional snooker.

The eighth and final frame saw the players locked in a tactical exchange with only the colors left, including a lengthy exchange on the brown.

"I'm very, very pleased to have won," said world No 3 Murphy. "I'm not flying half way around the world to lose in the first round.

"I was very pleased with how I played in the whole match. My safety play was good, my potting was good and generally if both of those work you win the game.

"Dave is a very good player who plays cagey snooker and it was never going to be over in hour, it was always going to be a slow, hard game. It is hard because most players play more aggressive snooker but we are all here to win and you have to respect everyone."

When questioned about creating history he joked: "It was difficult in the last frame because I needed to go the toilet. I wouldn't have minded if I had lost the frame."

Murphy will play home favorite Ding Junhui tonight and the 2005 world champion Murphy has never lost to the Chinese wunderkind.

World Champion John Higgins scraped through to the third round after beating Joe Swail 5-4 while Mark Williams, the 2006 China Open champion, didn't have any trouble in defeating Marcus Campbell 5-1.

With five ranking tournament victories in Asia, Williams is looking forward to extending his record.

"It was a good win for me. I need to win to stay in the top 32 and hopefully this will be the springboard for more victories before the end of the season," he said.

(China Daily 03/27/2008 page24)