Mark Allen holds off Kyren Wilson and faces Barry Hawkins in quarter-finals

3 hours ago 11

Mark Allen beat the world No 2, Kyren Wilson, 13-9 to reach the quarter-finals of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield. The Northern Irishman, who had let slip a 5-0 lead in their second-round match, won four of the first six frames in Saturday’s morning session to upset the 2024 champion.

Allen will face Barry Hawkins in the last eight after the No 11 seed defeated the three-time champion Mark Williams. The Englishman led 10-6 going into their Saturday evening session and pressed home his advantage to reach his first Crucible quarter-final for eight years. Hawkins sealed a 13-9 victory with an impressive display of his very solid all-round game.

Wilson had won six successive frames to lead 6-5 and a see-saw battle ensued before Allen won the final two frames in Friday’s session, aided by a 140 break, to edge 9-7 ahead. Wilson clawed it back on Saturday morning with a break of 78 in the opening frame, but Allen produced scores of 78 and 61 to go 11-8 up and, despite losing the next frame, held his nerve to progress.

After the match Allen made an astonishing attack on the seven-time Crucible champion Stephen Hendry for “talking rubbish”.

Hendry had strongly criticised the Antrim player’s shot selection during the opening session of his second round match on Thursday. But after Allen recovered to seal his victory, he turned his attention to Hendry, saying: “Stephen’s entitled to his opinion, but more often than not, he’s full of rubbish, to be honest.

“Not everyone can come here and make it look as easy as he did, but you’re also looking at someone that never won a ‘triple crown’ event after they turned 30, so the game changes and maybe that stubbornness is what cost him his later part of his career.”

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Neil Robertson, the champion in 2010, squandered a 4-1 lead in the opening session of his second-round match against Chris Wakelin. The Australian won four frames on the spin after losing the opener, but Wakelin, the world No 13, hit back, producing a break of 77 to stop the rot and taking the final two frames of the morning session to level it up.