Pistol Passes The Thunder
Mark Allen came from behind to edge out Neil Robertson 5-4 and book his place in tomorrow’s quarter-finals at the Yushan World Open.
Robertson came into the match holding a strong record against Allen, he’d won the previous four meetings between the pair. However, the Australian couldn’t quite make it five in a row today.
The Pistol will be hoping to secure his fourth piece of ranking silverware on Sunday. He’s already a two-time World Open winner, having won back to back titles in 2012 and 2013.
It was Robertson who was looking stronger in the early exchanges this afternoon. He moved 4-2 ahead, before Allen turned up the heat. The potter from Antrim won three frames in a row to snatch the win, making consecutive breaks of 71, 105 and 75.
Allen remarked: “It shows my game is in good shape, that even when I was struggling at 4-2 behind, I still managed to come through.
“It’s a little bit of a bonus to still be in the tournament, hopefully I have three tough matches in front of me, but if I play as well I did towards the end I think I have a good chance.”
Allen’s last eight opponent will be David Gilbert who secured a tremendous 5-2 victory over recent Indian Open Champion John Higgins.
Higgins had never previously lost to Gilbert and the clash was a repeat of the 2015 International Championship final, where he lifted the title in a 10-5 win. However, it was Gilbert who controlled proceedings today.
That wasn’t before Higgins had initially seized the advantage. The Scot, who defeated compatriot Anthony McGill to win the Indian Open last week, made a sublime break of 126 as he established a 2-1 lead. However, he was to be frozen out for the remainder of the clash.
Gilbert impressively won the remaining four frames to charge to victory. He got over the line in style with consecutive contributions of 82 and 132 to round off the victory.
Gilbert said: “It’s nice to finally get a win over John. He is a great player so it is good to have that on my CV.”
Mark Williams continued his fine run of form with a 5-1 demolition of Jimmy Robertson.
The two-time Crucible winner lifted the six-red world crown in Thailand earlier this month and has only dropped one frame so far this week. The Welshman recorded breaks of 72, 108, 60 and 59 in today’s win and will face Kyren Wilson in the last eight.
Wilson secured his progress with a 5-3 win over Thepchaiya Un Nooh. The Warrior rounded off today’s win with a century run of 113.