DREAMS of a first Asian world snooker champion moved closer to reality as Hong Kong’s Marco Fu joined China’s Ding Junhui in the semifinals of this year’s World Championship at Sheffield’s Crucible Theater on Wednesday.

    The pair have been kept apart in the last four, raising the prospect of an all-Asian final to decide the winner of snooker’s most prestigious prize. Fu withstood a fightback by Barry Hawkins to win 13-1l on Wednesday, the day after Ding became the first man into this year’s semifinals with a 13-3 thrashing of former champion Mark Williams.

    Now Fu will faces England’s world number one Mark Selby in the last four, with Ding up against experienced Scottish cueman Alan McManus.

    Hawkins, trailing 9-1 after losing the first two frames of the morning session, launched a stunning recovery to move within one frame of levelling their last-eight match in Sheffield.

    Hawkins, who had edged a nail-biting final-frame win over Ronnie O’Sullivan in the previous round, won five frames in a row as he came back to 10-9 but Fu somehow held himself together to edge over the line 13-11.

    The 38-year-old from Hong Kong had seemed a certainty to reach the last four for the first time since 2006 after building on his 7-1 overnight advantage to move within four frames of victory.

    But after Hawkins clawed back the deficit the decisive frames became increasingly pressure-filled until a nerveless break of 74 from Fu in the 24th frame — in response to a 60 from Hawkins — saw him home.

    Meanwhile, the 45-year-old McManus reached his first Crucible semifinal in 23 years after winning the last four frames against his compatriot John Higgins to triumph by the same score.

    Selby, the 2014 champion, had resumed Wednesday’s morning session with a commanding 10-6 lead and a pair of swift half-centuries set him on his way to victory.(SD-Agencies)