Hunter holds off Ebdon to reach semis (original) (raw)

Paul Hunter overcame the steely resolve of Peter Ebdon, the defending champion, 13-12 in the world championship last night to secure a place in the best-of-33-frames semi-finals against Ken Doherty.

"Paul's a tremendous player, so it was only a matter of time before he did well here," said Ebdon. "I wasn't playing all that well, but I tried for my life." This indeed could serve as an epitaph for Ebdon's season, for he came to Sheffield having reached only two semi-finals in this campaign's seven previous ranking events.

His will, skill and mental intensity nevertheless make him the toughest of competitors, but Hunter, notwithstanding his easygoing manner and fluency at the table, possesses a tough match temperament too.

"I knew he was going to play quite slow, which he did, so I tried to concentrate on my own game," said Hunter.

Ebdon had the edge in the middle session. From 4-4, he three times went two frames in front before Hunter took the last two frames before lunch to level at 8-8.

There was never more than a frame in it in the evening session until a run of three frames put Hunter two up with three to play at 12-10.

This kind of situation frequently brings the best out of Ebdon, and did again. He restricted Hunter to a single red as he levelled at 12-12, but Hunter's first safety shot in the decider left the champion snookered.

From this, Hunter made 47 before losing position. Ebdon clipped a difficult red to a middle pocket to resolve a safety duel, but soon ran out of position himself, still 34 behind. The Hunter safety went wrong, but the tricky initial red, which could have led to a match-winning break, eluded Ebdon, and it was the 24-year-old Yorkshireman, from that position, who clinched his emotionally draining victory after a total of 8hr 4min play.

His opponent in the last four, Doherty, was also involved in an exciting quarter-final in which he eventually beat John Higgins 13-8. At one stage Doherty held a 10-0 lead and he held off Higgins, as well as holding his nerve, to go through.

"At 10-0 I had a smile on my face, at 10-6 a bear wouldn't have hugged me," said the Dubliner, who won this title in 1997. "I couldn't sleep last night. I could just see the headlines: 'The biggest collapse since Wall Street in the 20s'. I was starting to get a little bit twitchy."

Mark Williams, the 2000 champion, secured a semi-final place against Stephen Lee and also top place in the end-of-season rankings by converting his 10-6 overnight lead over Stephen Hendry into victory at 13-7 after the seven-times world champion's 92 had accounted for the first frame of the morning.

Apart from the opening frame, Hendry was never in front and, after 3-3, never level. He is still likely to be third in the rankings when they receive their annual revision next Tuesday and his break-making remains a highly potent force, but his tendency to rely too much on his potting in broken play can work against him. It did so against Williams, who is a master of that kind of game.

Lee, the dark horse of the semi-finalists, followed his victories over Steve Davis and Jimmy White by pulling away from 4-4 to lead the Hong Kong No1 Marco Fu 9-4 before clinching victory at 13-7.