World Snooker Championship: Fu holds on and McManus is magic
Published:
Alan McManus reached the semi-finals of the World Championship for the first time since 1993, with a surprise victory against John Higgins, who lifted the title as recently as 2011.
Angles had been 11-9 down and saw his odds lengthen to 7/1 for victory before he won four straight frames to secure a momentous 13-11 win over the Wizard of Wishaw, who will not be adding to his four World Championship titles in 2016.
Despite having never won a ranking tournament, McManus was well worth the victory over his more illustrious opponent, producing the game’s two biggest breaks – a second frame 114 and 128 in the penultimate (23rd) frame.
He’s joined in the semi-finals by world number 14 Marco Fu, following the Hong Kong veteran’s exciting win over Barry Hawkins.
Having taken a 9-1 lead, Fu looked to be cruising to victory before the Hawk fought back spectacularly to bring himself within a point of the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open winner at 10-9.
However, Fu kept his nerve to see out the game at 13-11, producing a break of 93 in frame 21 to turn the tide back into his favour.
Mark Selby is the next opponent for Fu, with Hong Kong Fuey 2/1 to win. However, the best value may be with Selby to manage three or more century breaks, NOW 13/8 (was 6/5).
The Jester from Leicester already managed that feat against Sam Baird in his second round game, and there are nine more frames for him to produce those bumper breaks at the semi-final stage.
In the other semi, Ding Junhui faces McManus, with the Star of the East winning four ranking tournaments in 2015, and he’s the current favourite to win the tournament at 5/6.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
