Ebdon turns the heat up on Fu

Peter Ebdon demonstrated the fluent side of his game following a turgid opening session to move ahead of outsider Marco Fu in the 888.com World Championship final at the Crucible Theatre.

The initial eight frames had been a grind, spanning nearly four hours and prompting one spectator to shout out ’it’s like watching paint dry’ which earned him a reprimand from referee John Oomen.

But a new day seemed to bring a fresh approach with 2002 world champion Ebdon and Fu both showing more positive intent.

There were still bouts of safety exchanges but both players also took advantage when in among the balls as Ebdon edged 7-5 ahead by the mid-session interval.

Fu, bidding to become the first Asian to reach the world final, broke down on 17 in the opening frame and Dubai-based Ebdon took advantage with a composed 68.

He went two frames clear in the match for the first time after taking advantage of a poor safety shot by 28-year-old Fu in the next.

Fu found himself in trouble after being snookered behind the brown and Ebdon made him pay with a superb 107 clearance – his first century of the match and the 40th in total at this year’s championships.

The Hong Kong player needed to respond and he made his presence felt in frame 11 after a good opening pot and some good positional play helped him to compile a 60 break and leave Ebdon needing snookers.

But Ebdon retaliated with a break of 94 in the final frame before the interval and the overall quality was infinitely higher than on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Ronnie O’Sullivan will be looking to build on his 5-3 lead when his semi-final with Graeme Dott resumes this afternoon.

The Rocket has admitted to lacking in self-belief and was not at his best in the opening session of what is a re-run of the 2004 final.

But O’Sullivan, who has been plagued with tip trouble during the past fortnight, gradually took command without ever being at his most explosive.

Dott put together a 121 break in the opener and finished proceedings with a run of 70 but in between O’Sullivan dominated. Breaks of 61, 66, 63 and 47 helped him to win five frames in a row at one juncture.