It’s hard to believe that it’s been 12 years since Mark Allen lost a cracking World Snooker Championship semi-final to John Higgins. Back then, Allen was only 23 years of age, and it was thought that he would go on to do great things at the Crucible in the years to come. However, it simply hasn’t happened for Allen at the World Championship since that semi-final, and he has failed to make it back to the one-table setup in 11 attempts.
A multitude of first and second-round exits define Allen’s record at the Crucible, with a few quarter-final appearances thrown in. Indeed, after reaching the last eight in 2018, where he lost to Kyren Wilson despite having beaten the Englishman in the Masters final a few months prior, Allen lost in the first round in two consecutive years, faltering at the hands of Zhou Yuelong and Jamie Clarke respectively.
That’s why it was such a relief for the Northern Irishman to come through this year’s first-round match so comfortably, breezing past Lyu Haotian by a healthy 10-2 scoreline. It was a match in which Allen played solid stuff, but his job was made extremely easy by the poor form of Lyu, who failed to produce the kind of form which saw him defeat Marco Fu and lose narrowly to Barry Hawkins in his only previous appearance at the Crucible.
That relief was palpable for Allen, but the questions remain over why he has struggled to produce his best snooker at the World Championship. The last few years have seen him ascend to a new level of play – since winning the Masters he has picked up two ranking event titles and the Champion of Champions title earlier this season.
Indeed, that success in Milton Keynes at the Champion of Champions proved that he can mix it with the very best in the game. In winning the prestigious invitational event, he defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, and Neil Robertson in the final with a minimum of fuss. It doesn’t get much better than that, but unfortunately Allen has struggled to find that kind of supreme form at the Crucible in recent years.
The Champion of Champions does not carry ranking status, and as a result of poor showings in the season’s other tournaments, Allen’s ranking has slipped down to 13, leaving him dangerously close to dropping out of the top 16. That’s why his first-round World Championship match this year was so crucial to win, as seeded players do not receive ranking points if they lose in the first round.
The unfortunate reality is that Allen is a streaky player. In one tournament, he’ll look like the greatest player in the world, before struggling to pot a ball in the next. The Antrim man’s quest has always been to find a level of consistency that sees him go deep in tournaments on a regular basis, but it has always eluded him.
That streakiness is perhaps the reason why he has never quite lived up to expectations in the World Championship, with its long format and multi-session matches. However, there has always been a sense that Allen is part of a group of players who are always relatively well backed in the online sports betting – players that you could envisage turning on the style one year at the Crucible and winning the World Championship with ease.
At 35, there is still time for Allen to bring his A-game to Sheffield, and savour the unique joy of World Championship glory. He just needs to grab the opportunity before the years pass him by.
