• Ding and Fu Make History at Wembley

    China's Ding Junhui and Marco from Hong Kong made history by setting up the first all Asian final at one of snooker's major events at Wembley.

    It was only a matter of time before snooker's major finals were contested by two players from the Far East.

    The 2011 Ladbrokes Mobile Masters will provide a TV audience anticipated to easily eceed 100 million people across China and Hong Kong with their dream clash as Ding Junhui and Marco Fu battle it out to add a new name to one of snooker's most famous trophies.

    Marco Fu was the first man through, but only after Northern Ireland's Mark Allen threatened to spoil Asia's party.

    The Antrim left-hander opened up a four-frames-to-one lead and had the first chance in frame six.  Despite a 'kick' on a relatively straight forward black, he could have gone further ahead.

    It wasn't to be and the man from Happy Valley produced one his trade-mark periods of sustained heavy scoring.

    A break of 130 reduced the deficit to just two, and was followed by further runs of 97 and 136 to level at 4-4.

    Allen, clearly rocked by Fu's aggresive play began to lose his way.  Both players showed signs of pressure at the prospect of reaching their first Wembley final.

    Fu's greater experience proved invaluable as he took two hard-fought frames and restrict Allen to his sixth major semi-final loss.

    The pan-Asian final was complete just hours later, when Ding Junhui overcame Jamie Cope by six-frames-to-three.

    The Chinese number one made his intentions clear, preventing the Stoke potter gettingoff the mark in the opening frame.

    Cope responded in a similar manner in frame two, with a break of 101 levelling the scores and settling him into the biggest match of his career so far.

    Ding went ahead again in frame three and added a century of his own to lead 3-1 at the mid session interval.

    If there was a 'turning point' in the match, it came in frame five.  Cope, after a break of 58 looked like reducing the deficit to just one, but a classy clearance of 65 to extend his lead.

    The next two frames were shared, putting Ding two up with three to play. 

    The first chance in frame nine fell to Ding and he was taking no chances.  A break of 69 set up the win and a 58 clearance brought Cope's handshake.