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| May 5, 2002 | Sunday | Safar 21, 1423 |
Titanic struggle in semis
SHEFFIELD (England), May 4: Peter Ebdon and Matthew Stevens were tied at 12-12 after the penultimate session in their World Snooker Championship semifinal Saturday.
Ebdon led 9-7 at the resumption of play, but Stevens won the opening three frames to go 10-9 ahead.
There was little to choose between the two players and the lead changed hands again when Ebdon knocked in breaks of 66 and 52 to move 11-10 ahead.
Breaks of 79 and 54 from Stevens saw the Welshman edge back in front at 12-11, but Ebdon responded with a 60 break in the final frame to level the match going into the final session.
The winner of the best-of-33 frame contest will face defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan or seven-times champion Stephen Hendry in the final. Their semifinal was also level at 12-12 at the end of the penultimate session.
In a match of the highest quality, the pair have produced seven century breaks between them heading into Saturday’s final session with the first to 17 the winner.
Seven times world champion Hendry, who came back from 5-3 down to lead 9-7 with breaks of 125, 122 and 124 in the second session, began the third in similar fashion.
The Scot was on course for a maximum 147 in the opening frame of the session, but he fluffed the final black.
The miss appeared to affect his concentration as O’Sullivan won three out of the next four frames, cutting the deficit to a single frame with a 129 clearance.
Hendry made it 12-10 with another century and appeared set to go further ahead in the next frame, but he missed the brown and O’Sullivan cleared to win by just three points.
A missed pink from Hendry presented O’Sullivan with the opportunity to level in the final frame of the evening and leave the best-of-33-frames match evenly poised.
LATEST SCORES:
SEMIFINALS (BEST OF 33 FRAMES):
Matthew Stevens (Wales) and Peter Ebdon (England) level 12-12
Frame scores (Stevens first): 123-12, 7-80, 71-33, 73-23, 62-71, 3-108, 63-65, 46-79, 24-98, 6-127, 114-15, 1-68, 95-4, 94-0, 97-30, 73-75, 77-38, 77-9, 81-34, 1-75, 30-74, 107-0, 74-28, 9-68.
Ronnie O’Sullivan (England) and Stephen Hendry (Scotland) level 12-12
Frame scores (O’Sullivan firs