The Ladbrokes Mobiles Masters event has put the snooker calendar off to a sensational start. Until now the event has progressed in a dramatic and unexpected way, as the top-seeds have been ousted during the starting round.
Interestingly four-time Masters Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan lost to Mark Allen, becoming another top-seed to be ousted from the first round. Despite the unexpected defeats of the top players, many snooker experts thought that Ronnie
was the player who would put an end to it. However Ronnie could not stand the magic spell which is clinging to the Wembley Arena this year, as he lost at the hands of world No. 11 Mark Allen.
Ronnie will now join the league of Mark Selby, John Higgins, Mark Williams and Ali Carter. All of them top-seeds have suffered an early exit from the first round of the world’s most coveted non-ranking event.
Ronnie did not look to be on top of his game from the beginning of the match, and Mark Allen took the advantage. Allen put the match off to a perfect start, as he gained the early lead of 2-1. With a confirmatory break of 88 in
the next frame, Allen extended his lead to 3-1.
Under pressure Ronnie and cruising Allen shared the next two frames, dragging the score-line to 4-2. None of the players played at their best, Ronnie looked to be out of shape however Allen had the pressure to maintain the lead
which he was being able to get early in the match. Both players made some unforced errors time to time, nonetheless the three blacks missed by Ronnie in particular, proved to be fatal for him.
However In the later sessions of the match Ronnie turned the tides as he won the two consecutive frames, dragging the score line to a level 4-4, at that point it appeared to be anyone’s game. The crowd-favorite Ronnie however looked
to be the potential winner of the match as he enjoyed immense support from the crowd at arena.
In the ninth frame, Ronnie made a fatal mistake as he missed an easy red when he was on a break of 46. It happened to be fortunate enough for Mark as he cleared rest of the frame with an astounding run of 87.
Mark was just one frame away from the victory, however, the final frame was full of errors and drama, as Allen missed a black when he was on a break of 32. The error gave Ronnie a chance to be back in the business but useless,
as Ronnie missed an easy pink owing to the poor positioning.
More errors kept pouring in until Mark Allen cleared the frame with 60 points and moved ahead in the tournament to put up a quarter-final encounter with either Neil Robertson or Stephen Hendry.
“Ronnie kept me under pressure until the end, as he regained his composure in the match. But I knew that he is not playing at the top of his game so I took the advantage, however I made so many mistakes too”, Said Allen. He added
“Ronnie at times can be volatile and different, however he is a real gentle man, as we walked out of the arena Ronnie told me that this was about time I go on and win it”.
“Mark is a big time talented snooker player and he played an astounding match, surely I get the support of majority of the crowd but one has to be doing it on the table”, Said Ronnie.
He added that “Mark is in a good form and all he needs to do is focus and concentrate more, as he made it to the semi-final of the UK championship last month and now after beating me he is off to win the Masters”.
However, it will not be very easy for Mark Allen to get through to the semi-finals as he will face either the current world champion Neil Robertson or the legendary Stephen Hendry in the quarter-final match.
Two matches from the round one are still to come, as world No. 2 Neil Robertson takes on Stephen Hendry, whereas Jamie Cope deals with ‘the magician’ Shaun Murphy.