Snooker news - Mark Allen hits three centuries to reach Champion of Champions semi-finals

ByEurosport

Updated 09/11/2018 at 11:58 GMT

Masters champion Mark Allen dismantled Neil Robertson 6-1 in the quarter-finals of the Champion of Champions in Coventry.

Mark Allen

Image credit: PA Sport

The Pistol produced runs of 119, 102, 123, 98 and 75 as he coasted into the last four, where he will face Kyren Wilson on Saturday evening.

Robertson had fought back to beat Mark Selby earlier on Thursday but, despite a 69 in frame three to cut the arrears, had no answer for the excellence of Allen in a repeat of the International Championship final last Sunday, also won by the Northern Irishman.

“The first frame was scrappy, but after that I didn’t really put a foot wrong,” Allen said after the match.

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“I scored well, as I have been doing for a while now. I limited Neil to a few half chances.

“I had more confidence than Neil going into the match having won the final last Sunday, but he has more than enough experience to know how to deal with that.

To beat a player of Neil’s class twice in a row, and the way I have done in, stands me in good stead.

Allen will face Wilson in the semi-final on Saturday, with Ronnie O'Sullivan and defending champion Shaun Murphy contesting the first semi-final in a repeat of last year's final that Murphy edged 10-8.

FIRST SESSION REPORT

Mark Selby made a third competitive maximum of his career but still suffered a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Neil Robertson at the Champion of Champions tournament in Coventry.

In addition to the second-frame 147, the world number one made breaks of 100 and 61 to lead 3-2, but Robertson claimed successive wins over Selby after beating him at the International Championship quarter-final stage last week in China.

The Thunder from Down Under put together runs of 95 and 72 in a high-quality match - with the 72 drawing him level at 3-3 - and, having taken a tense seventh frame, progressed to the group final.

Allen beat Barry Hawkins 4-2 in an encounter of the highest calibre that saw breaks of 50+ in each of the six frames.