Judd Trump made his 1,000th career century on Friday, but that was the highlight of his quarter-final of the British Open as Mark Allen ran out a deserved winner of the match. Mark Selby booked his place in the semi-finals with a battling win over David Gilbert that went down to a deciding frame, and he will meet Allen in the last four at the Centaur in Cheltenham.
Judd Trump made his 1,000th career century, but it mattered little as Mark Allen secured a 5-3 win to advance to the semi-finals of the British Open.
The draw for the last four was made earlier in the evening in Cheltenham, and the carrot of a meeting with Mark Selby dangled in front of Allen and Trump.
It was Allen who seized it. The snooker was not pretty, but it was effective as, aside from the 1,000th century in the second frame, he largely stopped Trump from finding any fluency and was a deserved winner.
“I feel like I am close,” Allen told ITV Sport when asked about the state of his game. “I feel I am not showing that on the table, but I feel like my game is in good shape.
“I just need to produce it at the right time, and it would be nice if I can continue that this weekend.”
Allen pulled off a superb plant in his 147 against Ben Mertens in round three. He found another in the opening frame against Trump, but after doing the hard work, he missed a red to the right middle and went back to his chair after a break of 46.
Trump countered with 46 of his own but lost position on the yellow, and a protracted safety battle followed which sapped fluency from both players.
After 28 minutes of attrition, Allen potted the yellow to healthy applause – only to refuse a green and run for cover.
It is a strategy that has crept into Allen’s game and while it at times looks questionable, he will say the end justifies the means as he forced an error from Trump and picked off the green, brown and blue to secure a 49-minute opening frame.
While frame one was an arm wrestle, frame two was poetry in motion as Trump wrote himself into the history books with his 1,000th career century.
Trump had been frustrated since making century 999 on Monday, but he picked off a superb break in frame two.
It was not without alarm, as he lost position on 94 but pulled off a brilliant pot with the rest to drop perfectly on the pink.
When the pink was deposited into the right middle, a huge cheer rang round the Centaur – with Allen offering hearty applause and Trump raising a fist in celebration after joining an elite club featuring Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins.
Trump had a good chance to follow up the milestone moment and take the lead in the match, but he broke down on 62 and Allen stepped in to clear and take the third.
Allen picked up the pieces of Trump’s mistakes in frames one and three, and he repeated the trick in the fourth.
Trump looked well set to counter a break of 40 from Allen, but missed a pink to the left middle and his Northern Irish opponent stepped in to secure a 3-1 lead at the interval.
If making his 1,000th century lifted a weight from Trump’s shoulders, it did not free up his cue arm as he once again broke down when in the balls in the fifth.
It was a little like Groundhog Day for Trump as he could only watch on as Allen picked off a break of 64. It did not secure the frame, but he got back in again and played some exhibition shots once the frame was in the bag.
missed an easy yellow and Trump cleared to the pink to cut the gap to one.
The seventh suggested Allen was feeling nervous, but he fought hard with a fine break of 58 in the following frame.
He was fortunate to get an opening as Trump played a slack shot to leave a chance, but he took the chance and built a sizeable lead.
A second bite of the cherry came and went for Allen as he failed to get position on match-ball red.
Allen did not panic and once again played an excellent safety, and at the third time of asking, he closed out the match for his third win in a row over Trump.