Mark Allen says his 6-1 thrashing of Ronnie O’Sullivan will count for nothing if he doesn’t lift the Dafabet Masters title on Sunday evening at Alexandra Palace. The world number eight crushed an out of sorts O’Sullivan in their quarter-final meeting to set up a semi-final with either John Higgins or Ryan Day on Saturday. Allen has yet to get his hands on one of snooker’s Triple Crown titles, with his best effort coming when he lost the 2011 UK Championship decider 10-8 against Judd Trump.
He’s won three ranking titles since that loss but he admits that getting his hands on one of the ‘big three’ is something he needs to do in order to make his career a successful one. “I will get so much confidence from that. He missed a few because I put him under pressure. I haven’t won a tournament in nearly two years and I’m looking to put that right. If I don’t win one of these big tournaments I will be very disappointed,” he declared. Allen, who defeated Liang Wenbo in a high quality opening round match in London, had been bullish ahead of his meeting with O’Sullivan. His confidence proved well founded and Allen now has a perfect three-from-three record against O’Sullivan in snooker’s majors.
Breaks of 65, 115, 85 and 81 helped him secure his win, while O’Sullivan revealed afterwards that he was suffering from a virus that was causing bouts of dizziness. Allen says beating O’Sullivan won’t satisfy him unless he has silverware in his hands come Sunday. “I’m not getting carried away, it is one match and there are two very tough ones ahead of me if I’m going to win. I came here to win the tournament and if I go home without the trophy then I’m very disappointed,” he added. Allen is now 4/1 to win the Dafabet Masters title.
Dafabet Masters odds available at Dafabet.