Liang duels Robertson for UK title
Print Edition
China’s Liang Wenbo fought back to reach the final of the UK Championship with a 6-4 victory over surprise semi-finalist David Grace on Saturday.
Liang was in danger of a shock exit against England’s Grace when the part-time snooker club table cleaner moved into a 4-2 lead.
But the world No. 29 recovered to grind out the win as he took the next four frames to book a place in just the second ranking event final of his career.
Liang will face Australia’s Neil Robertson, who whitewashed England’s world No. 1 Mark Selby 6-0, in yesterday’s final.
The 28-year-old Chinese player, who lost to Englishman Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2009 Shanghai Masters final, also secured a place in the Masters as a result of his last-four win at York’s Barbican Centre.
“This is a very good chance for me. I was thinking of this match as a final, not a semifinal. I was very happy I’d done well,” said Liang of his final chance.
Home favorite Judd Trump and compatriot Marco Fu of Hong Kong were among Liang’s victims en route to the semifinals, but he looked out of sorts as he fell 1-3 behind Grace at the interval, only to rouse himself with a break of 110 in the fifth frame.
Despite earning just 13,000 pounds (US$22,000) on tour over the past two years and propping up his income by painting more illustrious cuemen and selling the portraits, Grace moved within two frames of a famous triumph.
The world No. 81 had looked certain to force a decider but missed what would ordinarily have been an easy pink at the end of the 10th frame, the pressure telling and handing Liang a shot at sealing his final berth.
“It was shocking really, just a twitch,” Grace said of the squandered pink. “I’d potted harder balls than that in the break and I thought I’d done the hard work.”
Liang leapt into the air in celebration on clinching his win, having beaten himself up repeatedly during the match over a string of misses.
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