Northern Ireland’s ‘The Pistol’ Mark Allen secured the remaining semi-final place at Friday’s session of 188BET Champion of Champions at Ricoh Arena, writes Ziad Chaudry.
The 29-year-old from Antrim strolled to a comfortable 6-2 victory over Glaswegian Stephen Maguire in the Group 2 final.
Earlier in the day Allan, who qualified for £300,000 Coventry snooker tournament by winning the Bulgarian Open week, overcame Kent’s own ‘Hawk’ Barry Hawkins 4-2 while Maguire was a comfortable 4-1 winner over ‘The Jester from Leicester’ Mark Selby.
Maguire, 34, produced the tournament’s highest break 134 in the opening frame against former world champion Selby.
But in tonight’s final it was Allan who was in complete control over the Scotsman. He raced into a 4 frame to 0 lead but Maguire rejuvenated after the interval with breaks of 107 and 50 to reduce the deficit to 2.
That proved to be Maguire’s final winning frames at The Ricoh this year as Allen claimed the two frames that secured his semi-final spot with breaks of 40 and 104.
He now plays the winner from the opening day Kyren Wilson tomorrow evening at 7pm.
“I feel good, my game is in good shape and hopefully there is plenty more to come,” said Allen.
“At 4-2 up, that frame was massive. Stephen was on a bit of a comeback, he had a fluke of his own in the previous frame and won the frame from it, and he was dominating that stage of the match. It was a massive turning point but I was due a bit of luck.
“It was fun but awkward – imagine playing a brother out there, that is what it was like. Stephen is a real good friend of mine but I am here to win the tournament and Stephen is an opponent at the end of the day.
“Kyren beat me in the semis in Shanghai, but I have to say I really struggled in that match and just gave it him really. I performed a lot better in the International Championship against him and managed to beat him 6-3.
“I know if I go out there and play my game then I will win, but the problem is you have to go out there and play your game. If I don’t play to my best Kyren is more than capable of beating me again.
“My game is in good shape, going in the right direction but there is still plenty I can improve on. I will be spending some time with Terry Griffiths to iron some things out on Saturday afternoon to get ready for Saturday night.”
The first semi-final which takes place at 1pm see’s Thursday's Group 3 winner ‘The Melbourne Machine’ Neil Robinson play his good friend from Cambridgeshire ‘The Gentleman’ Joe Perry, who came through Group 1.
Saturday's winners at The Ricoh will advance to Sunday’s best of 19 frames final where the 2015 188BET Champion of Champions will be £100,000 richer!
Tickets are available on the day, otherwise catch all the action on ITV4 from 12.45pm.