Fu fighter bounces back after slump

When the 888.com World Championship began 12 days ago, the bookmakers rated an Asian winner of the title about as likely as South Korea winning this summer’s World Cup.

But now 125-1 outsider Marco Fu stands only one match away from the final after turning around his declining fortunes with victories over Alan McManus, Stephen Maguire and Ken Doherty.

The Hong Kong player burst onto the scene in 1998 after becoming world amateur champion and looked set to become one of the top stars when he captured the Premier League crown in 2003.

Since then, however, his career has stalled ad before his exploits at the Crucible the 28-year-old had dropped 17 places in the provisional rankings during the course of this season.

In a bid to arrest his slump, Fu enlisted the services of 1979 world champion Terry Griffiths, now a snooker coach, and the results have been dramatic.

“I came to Sheffield with just one goal – to enjoy myself,” said Fu, who becomes only the second Asian player to appear in the World Championship semi-finals when he faces Peter Ebdon today.

“I haven’t been doing that for a while, but working with Terry has brought a lot of improvement in my game and things are starting to go really well.

“We got together last November before the UK Championship and we’ve been working on my cue action and my grip – just minor things but the results could be major.

“I’ve never thought about winning this championship. But I wasn’t under any pressure when I arrived because everyone had written me off, and I’m playing much better, so anything can happen.”

Doherty, beaten 13-10 by Fu in the quarter-finals, believes that if his conqueror continues performing the way he has been then the trophy could be heading to the Far East next week.

“Marco is making enough big breaks to beat anyone,” said Doherty. “Shaun Murphy came from nowhere to destroy everyone last year and Marco could do the same.”

Murphy became the latest victim of the famous Crucible ‘curse’ when he lost 13-7 to Ebdon, and still no player has successfully defended the crown at the first attempt.

The 23-year-old Murphy had beaten the 2002 champion 17-12 in the semi-finals last year and after being the victim of revenge, nailed his colours firmly to the Ebdon mast.

“Peter is my tip among the last four players,” said Murphy, who was applauded out of the arena by his opponent for his efforts to promote the game in the past year. “He’s at the top of his game.”

In the other last-four clash, Ronnie O’Sullivan will meet Graeme Dott in a repeat of the 2004 final which ’The Rocket’ won 18-8 after being 5-0 down.

O’Sullivan had to resist a stubborn challenge from Mark Williams to edge through 13-11, producing a superb 90 clearance in the penultimate frame when his opponent appeared to be getting on top.