Allen Wins First Masters Crown
Mark Allen enjoyed the best moment of his snooker career as he beat Kyren Wilson 10-7 in the final of the Dafabet Masters, winning a Triple Crown event for the first time.
Antrim’s 31-year-old Allen came from 4-3 down to win seven of the last ten frames at Alexandra Palace, before receiving the Paul Hunter Trophy and a career-biggest cheque of £200,000.
There were emotional scenes at the end of the match, with Wilson in tears as he reflected on defeat, and Allen embraced by his father Ronnie, wife Kyla and baby daughter Harleigh.
World number eight Allen was the man of the week in London as he knocked out Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins to reach the final. And though he only showed glimpses of the same form today, he did enough to win his tenth career title and first since the 2016 Players Championship.
Since his junior days, Allen has been touted as the best Northern Irish player since the days of Alex Higgins and Dennis Taylor, and he has now emulated those two greats by winning snooker’s biggest invitation tournament.
The first frame of the evening session lasted 40 minutes and came down to the colours. Wilson played a weak safety on the brown, allowing Allen to pot brown and blue to take a 5-4 lead. In frame ten, Allen led 23-8 when he missed a tricky green to a baulk corner, and his opponent punished him with a break of 84 to level the contest.
Allen then stepped up a gear with breaks of 73 and 119 – the 28th century of the tournament – to lead 7-5 at the interval. In frame 13 the Antrim cueman made 34 before running out of position, then Wilson had a scoring chance but potted just one red before missing the black with the rest. Allen’s 50 put him three frames in front.
Wilson stemmed the tide with a break of 73 to pull back to 8-6. In the 15th, Allen made 49 before missing a tough red to a centre pocket. Wilson replied with 47 to take it to a safety battle on the last red, then took advantage of a missed pot from Allen to clear to the pink and reduce the gap to a single frame.
Allen bounced back impressively with a break of 69 to go two up with three to play at 9-7. And a few minutes later the match was over as Allen’s run of 71 gave him the title.
Tickets for the 2019 Dafabet Masters (January 13-20) go on sale on Monday at 10am – for details click here.
