Allen shows class to win Haikou World Open

Mark Allen beat Stephen Lee by an incredible 10-1 scoreline to win the Haikou World Open and his first ever ranking event title. The victory comes on the back of impressive form since last December, when Allen reached the final of a ranking event for the first time (UK Championship) but lost 10-8 to Judd Trump.

Allen proved to be in an inspired mood, and his green baize rival Lee was mostly kept in his seat during the final and struggled each time he had the chance to visit the table.

Nicknamed “The Pistol”, Allen fired in breaks of 104, 50, 134 and 53 to fly all the way to 5-0, before Lee had the chance to write something under his name on the scoreboard.

It was during frame six when “The Bulldog” of snooker managed to steal the frame after Allen stopped his break at 55 due to a horrible miss, thus Lee clearing with a 67.

He also had a good chance during frame eight, when he left Allen in need of a snooker, but unfortunately few minutes later he committed a terrible mistake and left a free ball on, this time being Allen’s turn to clear the table for a 7-1 lead.

The first session was ended in great style, Mark using a break of 123 to enter the after-noon session knowing he only needs two more frames in order to become champion.

Lasting less than an hour, the last session saw Allen continuing his great run and closing the deal with the Englishman at 10-1, not before hitting another century break, this time a 103.

Since turning pro in 2005, Mark Allen has waited for this particular moment, when he can proudly say he won a ranking event title, the victory from China being in this case even more important since in the Last 16 round, Allen took revenge and beat the man who stood between him and the UK crown, Judd Trump by 5-4.

The World Open is a snooker event that started in 1982, back then being known under the name of Professional Players Tournament and continued to be staged each year (changing its name several times, mainly for sponsorship reasons), until 2010.

In 2011 the tournament took a break, this year being revived and carefully set on the snooker ranking events calendar, for the first time in its history being held outside the UK’s borders, in China’s Haikou.

Ramona Dragomir