Mark Selby and Ali Carter crash out of quarters while Marco Fu and Fung Kwok Wai surge into semis
The quarter-final stage of 2011 World Cup Snooker witnessed a major blow, as the tournament favourites, England’s Mark Selby and Ali Carter crashed out of the event at the hands of Marco Fu and Fung Kwok Wai of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong have now stormed into the semi-finals of the competition and will compete against Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen and Gerard Greene, who are also one of the top contenders of the world cup title.
Selby and Carter were coming into the match as clear favourites and the odds also favoured them, but a stunning performance by Marco Fu in the sudden death round saw the English team crash out of the tournament, with the scores at 4-3 in favour of Hong Kong.
The Englishmen were totally disappointed with the outcome of the match. Carter in particular, was furious after the match and believed Hong Kong were just lucky in the game.
While speaking to the local media after the loss, Carter said, “They were just lucky at the end of the day. We never performed but we never had to be able to beat them. On five or six occasions with them in all sorts of trouble they got out of the snooker
at the fourth attempt and fluked it where we couldn't hit it. We couldn't buy a lucky shot.”
Selby added, “We're very disappointed as on paper we were favourites to go through. I didn't perform in that match and struggled in the first frame and missed a simple blue. But the doubles games cost us. In one-frame snooker it was always going to be difficult
but we believe we had a very good chance of winning the tournament.”
Northern Ireland are also one of the top contenders of the title and with Mark Allen and Gerard Greene’s outstanding snooker skills, they stand a chance to clinch the semi-final victory at the Bangkok Convention Centre.
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