Players Championship Snooker 2024: Mark Allen racks up three centuries to book quarter-final spot with win over Williams
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Updated 20/02/2024 at 17:13 GMT
Mark Allen started his 6-3 win over Mark Williams in the Players Championship in blistering form, picking up three consecutive centuries in his first three frames. Williams battled his way back into the match but Allen was able to keep him at arm's length and ultimately advance to the quarter-finals. Welsh Open champion Gary Wilson continued his good form against Hossein Vafaei.
‘We were here to see it’ - Allen makes 600th career century in stylish fashion
Mark Allen produced a stunning display to beat Mark Williams 6-3 and book his place in the quarter-finals of the Players Championship.
The Northern Irish star is eyeing his second ranking title of the season in this year’s event at the Telford International Centre, and gave Williams little hope after an electric start that saw him pick up three centuries in the first three frames.
Allen took control of the match early on after taking advantage of Williams missing a long pot at the start of the opener.
‘The Pistol’ even looked on course for a 147 but had to settle for a pink after leaving himself a difficult position on the black, ultimately finishing the frame just one short of the maximum - albeit still the highest-ever break at a Players Championship.
After Williams found himself snookered at the start of the second, a hungry Allen took full advantage to claim a second century to double his advantage in style.
Two soon became three as Allen stretched his lead with some marvellous, confident potting to register a break of 102 in the third.
However, he was unable to equal the record of four tons at the start of the match in the fourth.
On this occasion, the Allen break ended at 45 opening the door for Williams to finally get on the board with an impressive 71, having only scored a single point in the opening three frames.
All the time watching Allen clearly had little impact on Williams who rattled off a break of 69 to narrow the deficit further.
Allen found his groove again in the sixth to extend his lead once more but a determined Williams was once again within a frame after a comparatively tame 59 break.
A cool-headed Allen put himself within one frame of the last-eight with the some more impressive snooker and sealed victory with a 68 break.
Welsh Open champion Wilson continues good form
Allen will face Welsh Open champion Gary Wilson next after he recovered from a slow start to progress to the quarter-finals with a 6-4 win over Hossein Vafaei.
Wilson is back at the table in Telford in search of back-to-back ranking titles, after clinching victory against Martin O’Donnell in Llandudno last week.
Vafaei started the better of the pair by reeling off the first two frames, before Wilson struck back with three on the spin, which included an impressive break of 90 in the fourth.
The match ebbed and flowed from there with frames traded one for one.
With the score level at 4-4, Wilson opened up a 38-point lead in the ninth frame, only to miss on the blue to allow Vafaei back to the table.
However, he was unable to take his opportunity and Wilson ensured no further openings were afforded to his opponent as he moved to within one frame of victory.
A businessman like break of 95 in the tenth frame saw Wilson over the line.
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