Two-time former champion Mark Allen and his Northern Ireland compatriot Jordan Brown have both progressed to the last 16 of the Northern Ireland Open, after two wildly differing methods of victory.
World No. 8 Mark Allen, known as ‘The Pistol’, was made to battle through yet another final-frame decider, this time against World No. 38 Ben Woollaston, in a match that offered a curious mix of sublime potting brilliance and uncharacteristic lapses in judgement from both players.
Jordan Brown, who came into the tournament ranked 55 in the world, had no such issues. He breezed bast Ashley Hugill for his second consecutive 4-0 victory of the tournament.
Match Summaries
Allen 4-3 Woollaston
Allen began the match in control, taking the opening frame with steady, if not spectacular, breaks of 37, 22, and 17. Errors from both players marked the second frame, but a composed 32 from Woollaston levelled the match. Another scrappy frame followed, and after Allen missed a makeable brown, Woollaston edged ahead 2–1.
With another safety battle looming in frame four, Allen took charge by smashing into the reds, opening the table beautifully. The bold move paid off, and with renewed rhythm, ‘The Pistol’ rediscovered his fluency. He raced through the balls with purpose, compiling a swift century break, finishing on exactly 100 to level the match again.
Allen kept his momentum rolling in the fifth frame, thrilling the Belfast crowd with a sublime break of 135, his best of the tournament, to reclaim the lead for the first time since the opening frame. Yet Woollaston refused to fold, responding with a fine break of 80 to force a deciding frame. From here it was Allen who held his nerve, and after a Jekyll and Hyde match, Allen got over the line to set up a clash with Irishman Aaron Hill in the last 16.
Allen spoke to Sports Talk after his match:
“People do see me as mentally strong. I think that’s a given seeing how many deciding frames I’ve won recently. It’s up to me to just improve my game and not put myself in that position time after time as sooner or later it catches up with you,” admitted Allen.
“When I won the English Open, it took me 10 days to two weeks to recover from that because there was so much drama all week, with late night finishes. You can’t put yourself and your fans and family through that every single time.”
Brown 4-0 Hugill
Despite coming into the tournament on a poor run of form, Brown defied the odds to defeat this year’s World Champion Zhao Xintong 4–0 in his opening-round match.
With the crowd firmly behind their local hero, Brown took full advantage of amateur Hugill’s nerves to record his second successive whitewash. Next up for Brown is Shaun Murphy.
Brown spoke to Sports Talk after his match:
“It’s nice to play well again and feel comfortable. I’ve had a few bad defeats here so it’s good to show the crowd what I can do as I’ve went missing for a while,” stated Brown.
“The fans love their snooker here in Belfast, and not just me and Mark playing. It’s more or less a sell-out every day so you have to look forward to these occasions. The Waterfront Hall is a special place to play and these are memories that you won’t forget.”
