Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ALLEN: BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE
Antrim ace Allen pots disappointment of his shock Open exit into perspective
MARK ALLEN labelled it a “bad day at the office” after crashing out of the Northern Ireland Open yesterday.
The home favourite has been desperate to win the Alex Higgins’ trophy since snooker returned to the country in 2016.
But his quest was emphatically ended with a shock 4-1 drubbing from Scott Donaldson at Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena.
“I’m not going to get down on myself because of one bad day at the office,” said the Antrim player.
“It doesn’t feel as big of a blow this year because we’re not in Belfast. In the build-up there hasn’t been any pressure on me.
“It’s just a shame that every tournament feels the same.” same.
World No.8 Allen failed ailed to hit the highs which landed ed him the Champion of Champions ons title less than a fortnight ago. go.
Allen fired a top break ak of
61 as the pair shared the he opening two frames.
But Per th p ott er r Donaldson rattled off three frames on the spin as he hit breaks of 74, 51 and 86 to seal victory.
The former Masters champion, who had never lost to the Scot in n their six previous meettings, added: “To be hononest, I never really got started. I lost the white a few times when I was in the balls and it cost me.
“Scott played much better than I did and he deserved to win. He was due to get one over on me.
“The few chances I did have, my positional play just wasn’t good enough.
“I just didn’t make the most of the chances that came my way.”
World Championship finalist Kyren Wilson (below) slipped to a surprise 4-2 exit to Shoot Out Champion Michael Holt.
An d To u r C h a mpi o n s h i p winner Stephen Maguire was stunned 4-0 by world No.42 Noppon Saengkham.
Ju d d Tr u m p continued his quest for a third straight
Northern Ireland Open title with an i mpressive 4-1 win over Martin Gould.
World No.1 Trump is bidding to become the first player since Stephen Hendry to win an event in three successive years for 24 years.
Breaks of 52, 103 and 76 saw the Ace in the Pack ease into today’s quarter-finals, where he wi l l fa c e Al l en’s c onqu eror Donaldson after he beat Saengkham 4-2 last night. Meanwhile, Ronnie O’sullivan shattered the silence in an empty Milton Keynes arena by loudly breaking wind.
The Rocket trumped during his 4-2 North ern Ireland Open third round win over Wales’ Matthew Steven Stevens.
Reigning and six-time world champion O’sullivan was trailing 22-1 in frames and 8-0 in points when he got set se to take on a red. B But then came the no noise with Stevens a and referee Ben W Williams unable to stop grinning. Wo r l d No . 2 O’sullivan looked up at St e vens and said ““Terrible guts” – b but then ch cheekily asked the of f ficial i “Was that you?”