Ding Masters Wembley While Left To Rue Tactical Error
Ding Junhui lifted the Masters title for the first time beating Marco Fu by ten-frames-to-four in an historic, first all-Asian final at Wembley.
The Chinese number one was the better player on the day but Hong Kong’s Fu will be rueing his decision to play a safety shot on the final pink in frame eleven when he looked drawing to within just one frame when his opponent required a snooker.
After potting green, brown and blue to leave Ding 16 points behind on the pink, Fu refused an attempt from distance to pot the pink and seal the frame and instead chose to play a relatively straight forward safety shot, trying to put the black on the cushion.
The execution of the safety was not accurate enough and Ding came to the table and duly laid the snooker, which Fu missed, potting the cue ball in the process. That left Ding with an easy pink-black combination to lead 7-4 instead of 6-5.
Two-time UK Champion, Ding, started strongly making a century in the opening frame and extended his lead with a run of 74 in the second.
Fu responded well with an 80in the third but the two-frame lead was restored as Ding went 3-1 ahead at the mid-session interval.
A tense battle followed in frame five, but it was Ding who came out on top, clearing from to brown to black to move further ahead.
Another eighty-plus break from Fu in the next saw the deficit reduced to just two, but back-to-back sixties gave the Chinese player a healthy 6-2 advantage at the half-way stage.
In the evening it was a different story with Fu looking comfortable and restricting Ding to just one pot in the first two frames.
Ding’s strengths are well documented. A great front-runner, who possesses a text-book cue action, envied by his fellow players and an ability to continually make big breaks, putting frames out of the reach of his opponents in a single scoring visit.
However, if he has a weakness, it is that all his strengths have a tendency to leave him when put under pressure by his opponents.
That is exactly what Fu had done by winning the opening two frames of the evening session.
If Fu had been able to put frame eleven to bed, who knows what the eventual outcome might have been, but after being let off the hook, Ding once again found his fluency and was able to relax, while his opponent could only think ‘What if...’.
This was the second major final in succession where a tactical decision played a vital role. In December’s UK Championship final, Mark Williams led by 9-frames-to-five against John Higgins and needed just the black to go 29 ahead with 27 left on the table.
The Welshman decided to “make sure” of the easy black rather than play position on the yellow.
A few shots later, his Scottish opponent had got the required snooker, wenton to clear the colours and win the next four frames to claim a famous victory.
A couple of seasons ago, played a ‘nothing’ shot on the brown in the deciding frame against Mark King in the Grand Prix. With his opponent needing three snookers, Chester’s Walden expected King to shake hands.
The nothing shot left King an easy snooker, which he got and then went on the get a further two, eventually potting the four colours to win.
The moral of the story is to kill off the game while you are in control and not allow an opponent to regain control...easier said than done in the heat of the battle!
