Rocket Crashes out to Mark Allen
Mark Allen held his nerve to pull off a sensational 13-11 victory over the defending champion in the second round of the 2009 Betfred.com World Championship.
Resuming at 9-7 behind this morning Allen won the first two frames with runs of 59 and 69. O'Sullivan made a couple of uncharacteristic misses and Allen's good safety earned him chances.
Frame 19 provided the key moment of the match, as Allen battled back from 65-1 behind with a run of 30 and then cleared the colour to force a respot. O'Sullivan missed a skinny black to the centre and Allen slotted home a long black to take the frame.
O'Sullivan bounced back in the next, in fact he was on course for a maximum break, until he rattled the 14th black, but the run of 105 brought the scores level at 10-10.
O'Sullivan missed a red with the rest in the next and Allen countered with 46 and then added another 36 to regain the lead.
O'Sullivan fought back once more, compiling 67 after Allen went in-off.
But that proved to be O'Sullivan's last meaningful contribution in the match. Allen pounced on a miss by the defending champion, smashing in 80 to stand on the bring of victory.
A poor safety shot by O'Sullivan gave Allen the first scoring opportunity in frame 24. He got to 34 before losing position, but again he won the safety exchanges and carefully pieced together 46 to earn a fantastic victory.
O'Sullivan was gracious in defeat saying that "Mark was brilliant, he deserved it."
A clearly delighted Mark Allen assessed the match as his best win ever. "It's what you dream about, isn't it? To play the best player in the world at the Crucible and win."
It's expected that Allen will face Ryan Day in the quarter finals if Day can turn his 11-5 advantage over Nigel Bond into victory.
Their record is fairly even, They've both beaten the other once or twice and it promises to be a quick-fire high scoring match.
Murphy is still suffering from cold like symptoms but thinks he's in with a chance to claiming the title again.
"They said there were only two players in this event and one is on his way home, so of course I've got a chance. I will need to improve though."
Frame Scores
Ronnie O'Sullivan 11-13 Mark Allen
36-47, 17-73(57), 69(40)-54(53), 69(40)-54(53), 68(68)-1, 78(43)-6, 10-63, 8-119(119), 93(93)-1, 107(107)-0, 101(34,46)-0, 0-117(108), 60(60)-70(70), 93(93)-0, 10-115(115), 98(94)-15, 92(64)-1, 0-75(59), 4-89(69), 65-72(respot), 105(105)-0, 14-83(36), 78(67)-6, 37(31)-80(80), 0-80
Shaun Murphy 13-3 Marco Fu
115(115)-0, 66(46)-58(58), 5-114(60,47), 70-43, 77(73)-15, 77(77)-27, 63-52, 49-17, 0-129(129), 102(102)-21, 67-35, 8-109(74), 76(48)-0, 71(62)-38, 85(85)-18, 128(101)-0
