End Of The Lines
Marco Fu ended the run of Oliver Lines at the Betway UK Championship with a 6-0 whitewash to reach the quarter-finals.
Exciting prospect Lines had beaten three players, including Judd Trump, to get this far but he was no match tonight for Hong Kong’s Fu, who goes through to face Jamie Jones or David Gilbert on Friday.
Fu has had a poor season so far, failing to progress beyond the last 32 of a ranking event before this week, but is now just two wins away from matching his run to the 2008 UK final.
The opening frame tonight came down to the colours and Fu was lucky to win it by fluking the brown. Lines had chances again in the second but couldn’t take them and Fu won it with a 46 clearance. Frame three came down to the pink, and after both players had failed to convert attempted pots, Fu knocked it into a baulk corner to go 3-0 up.
From that point the two-time ranking event winner grew in confidence and rattled through the last three frames with top breaks of 118 and 68, with Lines failing to score a point.
World number 15 Fu, who looks likely to cement his top 16 place and a Masters spot thanks to his run this week, said: “There was a lot of expectation on Oliver tonight, he made some mistakes and I took advantage. I didn’t play my best, I still have a lot of work to do on the technical side. I have had a bad season but I hope this event can kick-start it.”
Leeds cueman Lines said: “I am very disappointed, that’s not how I wanted to perform. I should have won the first three frames but everything I did seemed to go wrong. I wanted to win the title but you can’t beat anyone playing like that. I had a lot of fans here tonight so I can only say sorry to them.”
World number one Mark Selby earned a meeting with either John Higgins or Mark Allen by beating China’s Zhang Anda 6-1. Zhang won the opening frame before World Champion Selby took six in a row with top breaks of 90, 109, 50 and 100. “That was the best I have played so far here,” said Selby. “When I had chances I felt I was going to score well.”