Mark Allen ’embarrassed’ over World Snooker Championship win and heads to pub | Other | Sport
Mark Allen admitted heading to the pub after an “embarrassing” first session of his opening World Snooker Championship match. The former world No.1 came back from 5-3 down at the end of Saturday’s first session to beat China’s Zhang Anda 10-6. The Northern Irishman heads into the last 16 despite failing to build a single break of even 50 in the first eight frames of his match.
The 40-year-old was much improved on Sunday, including three century breaks – of 140, 109 and 129 – to battle back and beat Zhang. Allen has two Triple Crown titles and 12 ranking titles overall but has never won the World Championship, twice losing in the semi-finals in 2009 and 2023. And he admits he was humiliated by his own performance and ended up resorting to drinking pints in the pub to put it out of his mind.
Allen told the BBC after winning: “It would mean everything to win a World Championship. I want to be word champion. It will be a disappointing career for me if I look back and I haven’t won it. That’s why I was so frustrated yesterday.
“I’ve been doing things so well, on the practice table, being in the gym and eating well. After that match yesterday I just went out and had a few drinks and a burger. I thought – ‘I can’t play any worse than yesterday.’ I was so down on myself, I didn’t want to talk to anyone after that session yesterday.
“So I went out, had a few bets and watched the football with my mates. A bit of bad food… and slept really well last night and played much better today. I just felt like I’d been doing things so well, to play that bad I was gutted.
“I just want it so much – I would rather have that feeling than not care. You want to win the World Championship – that’s why you start to play as a 12-year-old.”
Allen did not hold back in his summary of his own performance. The Antrim native added: “Yesterday was absolutely embarrassing, very frustrating and I was completely gutted with my performance. I came in today with less expectations but when you’re out there you realise how much you want it and the fire in your belly comes back.
“I can’t have many more sessions like I did yesterday. I got away with one there. It’s not good enough at this level. That second session was decent but I’ve been here for 20 years and I would like to think there’s been better ones.
“I need to be doing that every single time I play here. Ronnie [O’Sullivan], [John] Higgins and [Mark] Selby produce that type of session every time.”
Allen will face the winner of 19-year-old prodigy Stan Moody’s first-round clash with 2024 world champion Kyren Wilson. Moody became the first British teenager to qualify for the Crucible since Judd Trump, the current world No.1, in 2007.
Allen said: “If I play Stan, he’s a really good kid, a talented boy and a great scorer, he backs himself in the big moments which I really like he’s not scared to go for those shots. It would be a very tough match.
“If it’s Kyren, we have played in a lot of big matches over the years. He’s just very good all round player, you need to play really well to beat him. I’m not going out drinking on Wednesday. I just felt something needed to change. If I hadn’t done that I would’ve imploded.”
