Marco Fu admitted that he wasn’t at his best but was delighted to defeat Sean O’Sullivan on Sunday and book his place in the main draw of the World Open. The 39-year-old returned to the table for the first time in a fortnight and he looked out of sorts as he trailed 3-1 to O’Sullivan. However, the experienced Fu battled back to win four frames on the bounce and he finished the match with a century break to seal a 5-3 triumph.
Fu, who is priced at 25/1 to win the World Championships, has now ensured his spot in the final stages of the World Open and will be heading to the event in Yushan, China in September. The 2007 champion admitted he hasn’t spent much time on the practice tables but felt he was always capable of finding a way past O’Sullivan in Preston.
Fu said: “I wasn’t really into the match you know. “After Hong Kong [Masters] I’ve just been having a break and I didn’t really spend too much time practising. I only spent one day practising before coming over here [Preston]. “My game is nowhere near where I want it to be and mentally it’s not great either. My concentration wasn’t great today but I managed to play a bit better towards the end. It’s one of those matches that I think you feel your opponent deserves to win a bit more than yourself, but in the end I still got the job done so I’m very pleased. “Even when he [O’Sullivan] was 3-1 up, I knew if I could get within one frame I could put a bit of pressure on Sean, which I did today and he made mistakes towards the end. He played quite well to go 3-1 up but towards the end he struggled a bit. But he’ll come on in the end.”
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