McGill dream of Crucible glory ended by Marco Fu

SNOOKER: Alan McManus within two frames of Ali Carter at Crucible

Marco Fu became the first player to book his place in the quarter-finals at the CrucibleinSheffieldthisyearbywinning a hard-fought best-of-25 encounter with qualifier Anthony McGill 13-9.

Fu, the14thseedattheWorldSnooker Championships, overcame a valiant bid by the Scot, who knocked out last year’s beaten finalist Shaun Murphy in the first round, to reach the last eight for the third time in his career and for the first time in 10 years.

The 38-year-old from Hong Kong took a 9-7 lead into the evening session and won four of the next six frames, aided by a superb century break in the fourth frame of the night.

McGill, 25, opened the evening session with a break of 97 to reduce the arrears to 9-8 but Fu responded with a break of 56 to lead 10-8.

Fu looked unsure as McGill sealed the next frame 62-15 to make it 10-9, but rallied with breaks of 100, 55 and 69 to take the next three and put the match to bed.

Resuming yesterday at 5-3 behind, McGill won the first three frames of the day to nudge 6-5 in front.

Fu took the next two to regain his slender lead, before McGill recovered the two snookers he required to win a marathon frame 14 and level the score.

With both players under-performing in an increasingly scrappy affair, Fu won the final two frames of the morning session to establish himself as favourite to progress.

Former two-time champion Mark Williams, pushed hard by qualifier Michael Holt, will take a 10-6 lead into the final session of his second round match this afternoon.

Williams, fortunate to find himself levelat4-4goingintothesecondsession, won the first two frames of the evening thanks to breaks of 87 and 61 to open up a 6-4 lead.

But Holt, who stunned Neil Robertson in the first round, responded with a