Fu pots his way to the main trophy on the Rock
Gibraltar - 13th December 2015 - Marcus Fu claimed the 2015 Dafabet Gibraltar Snooker Open with a convincing four frames to one victory against Michael White. The world number 14 won three successive frames to take the €25,000 top prize at the penultimate event of this season’s Kreativ Dental Clinic European Tour held in British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Kreativ Dental Clinic European Tour is a series of six events across the continent, with the top 24 on the final Order of Merit to qualify for the Players Championship in Manchester. The sixth and final event is the Gdynia Open from February 24-28.
Marco Fu, from Hong Kong, thrilled an intense crowd of some 200 aficionados with his potting ability when beating his english opponent Michael White in Sunday evening’s final 4-1 to take the first Dafabet Gibraltar Open Snooker Tournament Trophy and £25k first prize.
After one frame - Marco took the lead over an increasingly frustrated Michael as he raced through the reds/blacks to have us all on the edge of our seats as he demonstrated how to close out a frame on the colours to record a 140 break. The skill - and bravery - of some of his decision making was mind blowing.
During the Friday session, regular spectators and some other matches had paused to watch as Marco completed a maximum 147 - the fourth of his career. Friday too had put him in line for a further £3,500.
We were in the presence of sporting greatness.
Himself an English champion, Michael’s frustration may have been caused by nerves against No. 14 world - ranked Marco Fu as he had almost matched him break for break throughout the early stages - only to make errors when it was going well at crucial stages.
He ‘jawed’ the ball on some ‘straight’ shots and lost control of the white ball, going ‘in - off’ on several occasions - as did Marco a couple of times.
But Marco Fu knew how to close out the match and got across the 74 point mark (half of 147) to knowledgeable applause - for Michael to concede the 4th and 5th.
Sports Minister Steven Linares was delighted with the success of bringing another international sporting event ‘to put The Rock on the sporting map of the world’.
Marco himself expressed delight to ‘experience Gibraltar, a really beautiful place - and I’ll be back’. Two further editions are planned as part of the six - event Kreativ Dental Clinic European Tour with the goal - a top 24 place in the Order of Merit finals in Manchester in March.
This Dafabet sponsored Tournament really was a marathon occasion and the final was the 179th. match played on the 10 championship tables set up in the Tercentenary Sports Hall over the four days since last Thursday. The tournament contested by 128 players eager to get among the cash - and more importantly the Ranking points. Such
famous champion faces as Mark Selby, Peter
Ebdon, Stuart Bingham, Nigel Bonds - Jimmy White were here, but were eliminated along the way.
