NORTHERN IRELAND’S MARK Allen won his first Dafabet Masters title at Alexandra Palace last night.
The world number eight saw off Kyren Wilson 10-7 in a marathon match lasting five hours and 14 minutes.
40 years since Alex Higgins won his first Masters title, Allen followed in his footsteps and pocketed £200,000 in prize money for scooping the honour. En route to the final, he beat former champions Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins.
With nerves high, the mistakes were plenty in the early exchanges with Wilson taking an early advantage. Allen soon found his groove and took the lead for the first time at the 3-2 mark.
Advertisement
Wilson responded with back-to-back breaks of 86 and 89, but Allen’s narrow success in the final frame of the afternoon made it a best of 11 match heading into the evening session. And the contest continued from the restart.
Two-time semi-finalist in this tournament Allen took almost 40 minutes to secure the ninth frame but Wilson didn’t let him too far out of his sight.
A 73 from the Antrim native followed up by a sizzling 119 – the first century of the match – and another 50 finally powered the 35-year-old up 8-5 as Wilson’s errors proved costly.
Allen held his nerve to clinch it in the end, donning a Northern Ireland football jersey in the press conference afterwards:
Allen in action. PA Wire / PA Images
PA Wire / PA Images / PA Images
“It means so much to me,” he said. “That’s what I play the game for. It would’ve been devastating to get so close and not win it so very, very pleased.
“I actually heard today it was 40 years today since Alex (Higgins) first won it, that’s always in the back of your mind, not so much when you’re playing but when you’ve actually got over the line those sort of things come back.
“Northern Ireland as a whole get behind their sports people, they always do. I’ve got so much support over the years and I’ve done pretty much nothing in the game, hopefully now I’ll get a bit more.”
The42 has just published its first book, Behind The Lines, a collection of some of the year’s best sports stories. Pick up your copy in Eason’s, or order it here today (€10):
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
4 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
'It means so much' - Northern Ireland's Mark Allen wins first Masters title
NORTHERN IRELAND’S MARK Allen won his first Dafabet Masters title at Alexandra Palace last night.
The world number eight saw off Kyren Wilson 10-7 in a marathon match lasting five hours and 14 minutes.
40 years since Alex Higgins won his first Masters title, Allen followed in his footsteps and pocketed £200,000 in prize money for scooping the honour. En route to the final, he beat former champions Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins.
With nerves high, the mistakes were plenty in the early exchanges with Wilson taking an early advantage. Allen soon found his groove and took the lead for the first time at the 3-2 mark.
Wilson responded with back-to-back breaks of 86 and 89, but Allen’s narrow success in the final frame of the afternoon made it a best of 11 match heading into the evening session. And the contest continued from the restart.
Two-time semi-finalist in this tournament Allen took almost 40 minutes to secure the ninth frame but Wilson didn’t let him too far out of his sight.
A 73 from the Antrim native followed up by a sizzling 119 – the first century of the match – and another 50 finally powered the 35-year-old up 8-5 as Wilson’s errors proved costly.
Allen held his nerve to clinch it in the end, donning a Northern Ireland football jersey in the press conference afterwards:
“It means so much to me,” he said. “That’s what I play the game for. It would’ve been devastating to get so close and not win it so very, very pleased.
“I actually heard today it was 40 years today since Alex (Higgins) first won it, that’s always in the back of your mind, not so much when you’re playing but when you’ve actually got over the line those sort of things come back.
“Northern Ireland as a whole get behind their sports people, they always do. I’ve got so much support over the years and I’ve done pretty much nothing in the game, hopefully now I’ll get a bit more.”
The42 has just published its first book, Behind The Lines, a collection of some of the year’s best sports stories. Pick up your copy in Eason’s, or order it here today (€10):
‘One of the things I got from Rassie was when he said, ‘they played so well and then in May, fell a bit short”
Six Nations break badly timed for Cullen’s impressive Leinster
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Mark Allen overflowing emotions Snooker Winner winner Winning