Snooker results: Marco Fu hit a 147 in a deciding frame against John Higgins in front of his home crowd at the Hong Kong Masters

The home favourite had the Hong Kong Coliseum on the edge of their seats throughout a breathtaking clearance and not even his opponent could hide his delight when the final black was potted to seal a 6-5 victory.

"It is amazing. I still can’t believe what just happened there," said Fu. "It is impossible to do something like that.

"I don’t believe it and the atmosphere was incredible out there today. I am just very happy that I am playing pretty well. To beat the best players in the world like John Higgins and Mark Selby, you can’t get any better than that.

"This is my best moment so far as a professional, to do something like that in front of my home crowd. We have had huge attendances so far this week and it is the best thing I’ve ever achieved.

"I’ve never seen anything like this atmosphere. I am just glad I was part of the drama. It shows how much Hong Kong people love snooker. Hopefully in the future we can have a full ranking event. I think Hong Kong deserves a big event in the future."

He becomes the 15th player to win a match with a maximum behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (on six occasions), Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams, Barry Hawkins, Matthew Stevens, Ding Junhui, Andy Hicks, Shaun Murphy, Ryan Day, John Higgins, Mark Davis (on two occasions), Martin Gould, Luca Brecel and Tom Ford (on two occasions).

But this is just the seventh to come in a final frame decider, following in the footsteps of Hendry (1997 Charity Challenge), O'Sullivan (2007 UK Championship), Davis' (2x 2017 Championship League), Gould (Championship League) and Ford (2019 English Open).

It continued a remarkable resurgence for Fu, who underwent eye surgery in 2017 then spent almost two years off the tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A three-time ranking tournament winner and former World Championship semi-finalist, Fu had beaten Mark Selby 5-2 in the opening round of the eight-player invitational event.

Higgins started with a century and also led 3-1 and 4-2 before Fu clawed his way back to parity by winning the eighth frame.

A second century took the Scot one frame from victory but Fu levelled with a break of 72 before holding his nerve to wrap up his victory in style.

Ronnie sets up dream final

Fu will now face either Ronnie O'Sullivan in Sunday's final after he staged a thrilling comeback to recover from 4-1 down and beat Neil Robertson 6-4.

Three centuries in succession put Robertson in total control, but O'Sullivan turned the tide with a run of 93 before pinching a tight seventh frame to get back within one.

O'Sullivan then conjured a pair of centuries of his own as he caught and passed a dizzied Robertson, who was unable to rally as The Rocket set up what for organisers and a sellout crowd is the dream final.

"It was a great occasion, a great crowd and a great venue," he told WST. "The fans were amazing and they were treated to some great snooker from Neil to go 4-1 up,” said 46-year-old O’Sullivan.

"If it was a boxing match they’d probably have stopped it at that point. I was getting outplayed, but I hung in there. I don’t beat myself up as much as I used to, so I always give myself a chance. That is one of my strengths, to not play my best and dig out results.

"To play Marco in Hong Kong is great. It is great for Marco to make it to the final. I know how much it means to him to do well for the Hong Kong snooker fans. I am just happy that I am able to get to play him in the final."