Marco Fu lost his cue tip but not his nerve as he levelled his World Snooker Championship semi-final against Mark Selby at 8-8.
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They finished a session that overran locked together at 12-12, with Selby well short of the form that won him the title in 2014 and Fu striving to take advantage.
Virgo’s remark related to the length of the frame he was commentating on, which eventually ran to 76 minutes and 11 seconds, becoming the longest in the Crucible’s history.
The pair’s combined total of nine centuries was a record for a world championship match, one more than the previous mark. The final frame score was 73-43 in the Leicester man’s favour.
While chalking his cue and glancing at the table mid-break, Fu nudged the tip off and joined the Crucible crowd in shock as the world number 14 realised what had happened.
Long though it was, Sunday’s frame was still short of the world record of one hour, 40 minutes and 24 seconds set by Scotland’s Alan McManus and England’s Bary Pinches at October’s Ruhr Open in Germany.
Snooker, thanks in large part to Ding’s efforts, has become increasingly popular in China and there has always been a belief within the game that an Asian world champion will bolster efforts to increase snooker’s global appeal beyond its traditional heartlands.
The rapid growth of the sport in China, particularly, has always been expected to deliver a Crucible champion. Fu then showed his break-building class with 135 and 114 in winning three frames in a row.
He led 5-3 after the first session but Fu closed the gap.
Fu had breaks of 108, 71 and 77 to nose ahead, before Selby toiled for parity to take into the resumption on Saturday evening, with 17 frames the target for victory.
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The four centuries scored by McManus and Ding between them – added to Ding’s four from Thursday’s opening session – matched the record for the number of 100-plus breaks in a single World Championship match.
