It’s hard to believe the man from Hong Kong, Marco Fu has only won 2 ranking titles since he first turned professional back in 1998. Known as one of the best break builders snooker has ever seen, Fu has always struggled to get his hands on the silverware.
John Higgins on the other hand, has had one of the best seasons of his entire career. In the last 8 weeks alone Higgins has won the China Championship and the Champion of Champions, not to mention knocking on the door of the UK Championship. His success has put him within striking distance of Stuart Bingham’s No.2 position in the world.
Recently Fu decided to tweak his technique by giving himself a longer pull-back on his backswing allowing him to play more powerful shots and to increase his cue power. These changes have made huge differences to his performance, opening up shots he wasn’t originally able to take on.
At the beginning of the match this afternoon, it looked as though Fu was in for a hammering against the home favourite, John Higgins as he made three century breaks in succession. The Scot quickly racked up a 4-1 lead but when an unlucky split of the reds caused a foul, the whole game changed shape.
Marco Fu then began to take advantage of Higgins misfortune and managed to level up the match 4-4 at the end of the afternoon session and making his tenth century of the tournament.
As the evening session started, it was clear from the offset that John Higgins was out of form, missing shots he would usually get. Fu took full advantage and scored heavily when the chances arose and took the next 5 frames in a row to beat John Higgins 9-4.
At the end of the match Higgins said; “I played great at the start and was feeling good but from 4-1, Marco just totally froze me out and played fantastically.”
The new Scottish Open Champion, Marco Fu said;
“I was feeling over the moon after the first session, and tonight I played much better match snooker.
“I just can’t believe i am the champion.”
Stephen Hendry presented Marco Fu with the new ‘Stephen Hendry’ trophy and a prize of £70,000.
