Mark Allen has beaten Mark Selby 6-5 in the quarter final of the Evergrande snooker China Championship, dashing the world No.1 dreams of winning the £200,000 prize pot.
It was Mark Allen that came out with a point to prove today after his recent drop in the snooker world ranking’s. Displaced from 6th to 10th recently due to poor results, the Northern Irishman was in need of some good results, particularly coming up towards the Masters. If any match was going to test Allen, then playing Mark Selby was the ultimate test.
Mark Selby had just won the International Championship last week. Playing well and feeling confident about his snooker, he was always going to ask questions of Mark Allen.
In the first half of the match the frames were shared at 2-2. From there Mark Allen stepped his game up and took the next three frames to lead 5-2 making 2 centuries. At this point he would’ve thought the match was his.
Mark Selby being the hard match snooker player he is managed to get himself back into the match. He took the next three frames to level things up at 5-5 with breaks of 91 and 127.
At this point Mark Allen might of thought it was game over. In the deciding frame although Selby got his chances, he did not convert them into frame winning opportunities. Allen came to the snooker table and made a 60 break which in the end, was enough to secure his place in the semi final of the China Championship.
On the other table, John Higgins secured a decisive win over Ali Carter. A match lacking fireworks from wither player but John certainly played better than Ali in this quarter final encounter.
Although Higgins might not be quite back at his best yet, there are glimpses of the player that once dominated the snooker scene.
Higgins who also dropped slightly in the snooker ranking’s recently would be another player who could benefit hugely this week with the high prize money on offer.
Both John Higgins and Mark Allen are now set to play each other in the semi finals. This will be an interesting snooker match but the momentum is slightly in Allen’s favour.
