Mark Allen has stormed into the last eight of this year’s World Championship after beating Joe Perry 13-8 at the Crucible on Friday. The two players went into the evening session of their second-round clash tied at 8-8 and many people were anticipating a long night, but that did not prove to be the case as Masters champion Allen rattled off five frames in a row to book his place in the quarter-finals for the first time since 2011. The Pistol, who is priced at 9/1 to claim world championship glory for the first time, will now face either Kyren Wilson or Jamie Jones in the last eight and he will be hoping to replicate the ‘perfect’ performance he produced against Perry.
“I felt like I needed to go for more shots, my game is about potting the long ones and scoring,” Allen was quoted as saying on the world snooker website. “I was aggressive this evening, but I was sensible. I turned down a few pots to keep him tight when he was 40 or 50 down in frames. Apart from one missed blue, I played perfect snooker for five frames tonight.” The 32-year-old, who rounded off his victory over Perry with a break of 122, was delighted with his overall performance, as he knows how rare it is to enjoy a ‘perfect’ session at the Crucible. He added: “This is the World Championship at the end of the day and you’re not going to have any matches handed to you, so I’m very happy with the way I closed it out.”
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