Fighter Donaldson loses in semi

Perth snooker player Scott Donaldson was narrowly beaten in the semi-final at the Gibraltar Open yesterday after thrilling the Victoria Stadium crowd with a series of epic fightbacks.

The 23-year-old scored three comfortable wins on Saturday, but his run looked certain to end yesterday morning when London veteran Alfie Burden led him 3-0.

Donaldson then ground out the next four frames to win 4-3 before recovering from 2-1 down to beat China’s Zhang Yong 4-2.

That set up his first ranking semi-final since last February’s Welsh Open, but Welshman Ryan Day put a spanner in the works by reeling off the first three frames with a trio of half-centuries.

As he’d done earlier, Donaldson dug in and fired back-to-back breaks of 93, 60 and 67 to take the match to a final frame decider.

World number 18 Day, who went on to beat Cao Yupeng 4-0 in the final and win the tournament, seized control with an opening 61 and this time there was no way back for the Scot.