Things looked a little ominous for Mark Allen at the start of his World Championship semi-final against Mark Selby on Thursday night as the four-time champion stormed out of the blocks with a break of 123. But the Northern Irishman showed the fortitude that is becoming his trademark to reel off the final three frames of the evening and take a 5-3 lead into the second session at the Crucible.
It’s been quite a year for the 37-year-old. He has been the player of the season, picking up three ranking titles including the UK Championship, where he came from 6-1 down against Ding Junhui to win nine of the next 10 frames and clinch his second major.
Allen’s rise to the top of the game has been a long time coming after he burst into public consciousness by beating Ronnie O’Sullivan in Sheffield in 2009 on his way to the last four. The Belfast native’s record at the Crucible has been dire for someone of his talent and this is his first time back in the one-table set-up since that maiden breakthrough.
For years he was seen as an underachiever, despite winning the Masters in 2018, whose lifestyle and attitude was holding him back.
He is certainly no stranger to controversy, with Ken Doherty labelling him a disgrace after the then 21-year-old punched the table and told the referee “f**king warn me then” during a match between pair in 2007.
He’s also had a few fallouts with former World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn, particularly in 2011 when Hearn shortened the format of the UK Championship. Allen said “Barry’s just there to make money for himself” and “the whole tradition of the game is going to pot”. He was fined and Hearn called him a “silly little boy”.
Allen has said he suffered with depression that same year following the breakdown of his relationship with former women’s world champion Reanne Evans. They endured a notoriously tense match in the first round of the British Open in 2021, when they were reportedly in dispute over child maintenance payments.
Allen declared bankruptcy in January 2021. He told the BBC “I just overspent in every aspect of my life ... It’s easy to read that I made £3.5 million on the table, but I spent it as fast it was coming in.” He was also going through a divorce from Kyla McGuigan with whom he has a five-year-old daughter.
However, a sit down with O’Sullivan in April last year seemed to spark a change in approach. Allen said O’Sullivan spoke to him about how he looks after himself physically and mentally and a change in lifestyle has led to Allen losing more than six stone.
In a recent interview, Allen said: “I’m in the best shape I’ve been in for a long, long time. It’s probably 15 years since I’ve looked anything remotely like this. I enjoyed myself after the Crucible last time. I ate and drank a bit too much for a few weeks and then I got my head down. It was really since June that I started knuckling down and doing things right.
“Last year it wasn’t a lot of fun, going round the table and I could hear it in my breathing. I wasn’t in a good place. It is no coincidence that, more often than not, the people who do really well consistently at the Crucible are the ones who are in good shape.”
Nicknamed “the Pistol” for his speed at the table, Allen has come under fire from the likes of Stephen Hendry at times this year for playing slower, more-risk averse snooker but he has found his groove again in Sheffield.
The world number three impressed from the starting gun at this year’s championship, brushing off the disruption of a woman trying to glue herself to his table to see off Zhengyi Fan in the first round.
He found top gear to blitz past former world champion Stuart Bingham 13-4, leaving him time to excel on commentary for the BBC in between matches. However, his quarter-final victory over Crucible debutant Jak Jones was “a complete slog”.
“The first session was really good but I was awful after that and it was just a matter of digging deep, trying to stay as positive as possible and trying to get 13 frames ... That’s a match I would have lost a few years ago,” Allen said.
But he came through that test and looked back to his best on Thursday night, where O’Sullivan said he was “doing Selby at his own game”. He remains the underdog to come through that encounter which resumed on Friday afternoon, but he has been proving people wrong all year long.
If he makes the final he’ll be guaranteed to finish the season as the world number one, and he would face either O’Sullivan’s conqueror Luca Brecel or 20-year-old sensation Si Jiahui, against whom he would be the clear favourite. Si leads Brecel 11-5 after the second session in the best of 33 semi-final, which resumes at 7pm on Friday night.
If he needs any more motivation, victory would see Allen emulate his countryman Alex Higgins and become one of just 12 players to complete the Triple Crown of Masters, UK Championship and World Championship victories. “The Pistol” might just finish with a bang.
