Allen breathed a sigh of relief after beating Robbie Williams to make it through
Mark Allen is the highest-ranked player to have won the title so far, and in the first round of the World Championship, he fended off a frantic late comeback from Robbie Williams to win 10-6.
World No. 3 Allen has won numerous awards on tour over the past two years, and he aims to become world No. 1 by the end of the season. By his own high standards, the Northern Irishman has a disappointing record at Crucible – he reached the semi-finals last year, losing narrowly 15-17 to Mark Selby, his second appearance in the semi-finals.
Allen is determined to lift Snooker's most famous championship trophy – which will allow him to complete the Grand Slam, as he has already won the British Championship and the Masters. It was his 18th consecutive appearance at Crucible and his 13th time in the second round, where he will face the winner between Jamie Jones and Higgins.
The 38-year-old, who has won three tournaments this season, was far from at his best against Robbie Williams, but he was good enough to avoid becoming the eighth seeded player to be knocked out in the first round. In Tuesday's first stage, he hit a 70 and 80 to take a 7-2 lead. World No. 45 Robbie Williams was the lowest-ranked player in the tournament, winning the first game today with a score of 77 and trailing the score to 4-7 in the rest of the game.
Allen won the 12th inning, then won the 13th inning, which lasted 49 minutes. After halftime, Robbie Williams continued to fight, scoring another 53 and 86 points to chase the score to 6-9. But Allen finally scored a personal high of 114 points in the 16th game to complete the promotion task.
"You have to play the first game before you can win," said the little gunner. Yesterday I played well and I felt like everything was under control. My security is good and I've had an advantage in these fights. But today I made some mistakes and at the 9-4 lead I was a little bit absent-minded and out of shape. ”
"When it's 9-6, the game really starts because Robbie had beaten me 4-0 before. I had to start all over again, and it was great to finish with one shot. Even though I wasn't that confident in my game form, I still won a lot of races this season. Last year, I made it to the semi-finals and even though Selby was nowhere near my best, I caught up with him. So I knew I had to persevere and get the most out of the bad correction. ”
"I'd love to play Higgins next because it's amazing to play against one of the greatest players of all time. I've played him five times this season and I've been enjoying it. (Welcome to click to pay attention to Runwu AB, please indicate the source for reprinting, thank you)