Marco Fu beats Judd Trump to reach Masters second round

Marco Fu fought back from 3-0 down to beat former world number one Judd Trump 6-5 in the first round of the Masters snooker tournament here on Tuesday.

Trump looked unbeatable after jumping to a 3-0 lead but Fu, from Hong Kong, China, won the next two frames with breaks of 130 and 88. Trump extended the lead to 4-2 with 79 and pulled ahead 63-10 in the seventh. But Fu, ranked eighth in the world, made a 58 clearance to make it 4-3.

Fu, finalist in 2011, made 110 for 4-4 then Trump edged ahead with a 112. World number four Trump had his match-winning chance in frame ten but he missed the black off its spot on 36, and Fu duly punished him with 80 for 5-5.

A fluked red gave Fu the first chance of the decider and he made 22 before running out of position. After a brief safety exchange, a fantastic long red from Fu set up another chance and this time there was no mistake as he finished in style with 102.

Fu will next take on Mark Allen on Thursday evening.

"I haven't played a lot better than this in my career," said 39-year-old Fu to World Snooker's official website. "It's one of the best wins of my career, the way it was going when I was 3-0 down against a top class player. He played very well, he didn' t give it away. I think I earned it at the end, so it' s up there.

"At 3-0 down I still knew I could do damage if I got chances. The table is playing lovely. When the table' s like this, it helps all of us to play well," he added. Endit