Race for the Crucible – Updated Projected Seedings
The final of this year’s German Masters will be a battle of the Marks as Williams and Selby both battled through their semi-final matches, albeit in somewhat different ways! Click below for more…
First through to tomorrow’s final was Welshman Mark Williams who recorded an impressive 6-3 victory against Masters finalist Marco Fu this evening. The opening frame of the match saw Mark in amongst the balls first before he broke down and presented Marco with a chance to get back into it. Although Marco took advantage to lead 1-0, it was Williams who headed into the mid-session interval with a 3-1 lead, scoring well and capitalising on errors from his opponent.
After the break however the quality took a dip and with both missing balls, it was Fu who eventually took advantage to level the match at 3-3 and threaten another comeback similar to that against Mark Allen during his recent Masters semi-final.
Williams though has looked in fine form in Berlin and at this point took his game to another level, breaks of 88 and 71 helping him to take the next three frames as Marco could offer little resistance. Particularly impressive was Mark’s long potting which was as effective as it was back at his peak circa 1998-2003. As has always been the case, but for a few exhibition shots on the colours he could have had a couple of centuries and he continued to look just so relaxed around the table despite the pressure involved.
While Mark was able to wrap up his victory relatively early however, Mark Selby was involved in a real dogfight against Graeme Dott before eventually prevailing 6-4 following an impressive comeback.
Prior to the interval it was the 2006 world champion who was on top, breaks of 83, 75 and 66 taking him to a 3-1 interval lead as he looked to repeat his Crucible victory against Selby from 2010. Mark though was able to dig deep and level at 3-3 and it looked like he would move into the lead for the first time before with a 39 point lead in frame seven he broke down and let Graeme back to the table to take it with 71.
That was to be the last frame that the Scot won however, Mark eventually taking two tension-filled frames to lead 5-4 before winning the match with a break of 61. Unfortunately the match was not televised here in the UK but during the live chat yesterday, both Claus and Philip provided excellent shot by shot updates for those of you wanting to know more about how the match unfolded. You can view that here.
Who wins it from here? I will post my thoughts ahead of the final tomorrow morning…