Hong Kong’s Marco Fu ends 10-year losing streak against Ronnie O’Sullivan – admits his eye is ‘not getting better, not getting worse’
- The world No 25 scores s 4-2 victory in the Coral World Grand Prix after nine straight losses against the five-time world champion
Hong Kong’s Marco Fu Ka-chun admitted the eye problem that nearly finished his career was not getting better after ending a 10-year losing streak against former world No 1 and five-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Coral World Grand Prix in Cheltenham.
The 41-year-old Fu, who had laser surgery in December 2017 because of retinal degeneration and myodesopsia in his left eye, scored a 4-2 victory over the Rocket, having lost to the Englishman in his past nine professional matches going back to the 2009 Welsh Open.
“Going through 10 years without beating him in tournaments is very hard to handle,” said three-time ranking event winner Fu said in a post-match interview with World Snooker. “It is a weird record. I had quite a good one against him in the early part of my career. It is very strange.
“Sometimes you don’t know what to expect. You can play great against him and still lose. I think he is a much better player now and maybe I caught him on a slightly bad day and took advantage of a few mistakes.
“[As for my eye]. it’s not getting worse but it’s not getting better and I just have to get used to playing with this eye condition. It’s not affecting me too much and it’s all in the mind.”
Fu first knew there was a problem in his eye in September, 2017 after looking up to the sky and seeing “almost 200 black spots in my left eye”. After he came back to Hong Kong, a specialist discovered two problems in main eye he uses when playing snooker and suggested surgery.
Fu had breaks of 61, 52 and 55 to inflict upon O’Sullivan his first opening-round defeat since the 2016 World Grand Prix. The Hong Kong player advances to the round of 16, which means he qualifies for the next phase of the Coral Series at the Players Championship in Preston.
From there, the top eight players compete in the Tour Championship in Llandudno, Wales.
Though the 25th-ranked Fu is able to play on the world tour, he said he found it difficult to find a balance between training and putting pressure on his eye.
“I put in the hours but sometimes I am scared to put pressure on my eye and sometimes I want to take it easy,” he said. “But the tour is so competitive, and you must put in the hours so it is hard to find a balance.
“Hopefully, I cam make a 100 per cent recovery but that is out of my control,” add Fu, who gave himself another five years on the circuit after making his comeback from surgery. “It’s hard to say. As long as it’s not getting worse, I can still play but need to put in the hours, which is a little bit tough for me. But I’ll try my best and not think to far ahead.
“Hopefully I can play at the top level for as long as I can.”
