World Championship 2011 - Day 5 - Allen beats Stevens after dramatic match

14:12:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Mark Allen makes a beautiful comeback
What a better way to end the day but with a dramatic match, a match that was absolutely breathtaking and kept us practically glued to our TV screens?! Mark Allen and Matthew Stevens were fighting for a place in that glorious Last 16 round and although more than once we thought Allen gave up the fight, he succeeded in coming back from a 9-6 deficit and win the match 10-9.

The first session between Mark Selby and Jimmy Robertson wasn’t much of a surprise, the Leicester man ending it in his favor 8-1.


If Allen v. Stevens` first session was a very tight one, the boys sharing frames until the Welshman was in the lead 5-4, the second one started in a pretty similar way, but took a whole different turn minutes after that.
One frame and that "one frame distance" was replaced by a "two frames apart" situation, as Stevens was cashing the first frame of the evening, only to see Allen replaying with winning the very next one for a 5-6 scoreline. And until the result reached 7-6 in favor of the "Welsh Dragon" things were cool and the tension wasn’t that high (I said not that high, not that it was inexistent!).

Not a good day for Stevens :-(
Breaks of 54 and 28 were bringing Matthew Stevens in the lead and with one foot and four toes in the next round as the scoreline was going 9-6 in his favor. Back in his chair, Allen seemed to be giving up fighting; he had a sad expression, seems tormented and lost in space.

However the fact that he succeeded in winning the following frame with a break of 103 spurred him a bit so he cashed two more as to level the match! It was incredible! When no one was expecting it, he made a full comeback and that wasn’t going to be his last saying in that match, for he also won the next one, this meaning that he defeated Stevens 10-9.


It was a terrific decider and I think the nerves and the tension were higher than ever, but Allen put himself together and won. With Reanne Evans and their daughter Lauren in the audience he seems to have found that certain power and kept on going until the end. Great effort!
Still, I must mention that Stevens` performance was also stunning and if he lost it’s because there can be only one and this time wasn’t his lucky day. The fact that Allen pulled back three consecutive frames put pressure on him and that was the bad thing. But there’s a trophy out there with Stevens` name on it, I’m sure of it! :-)


You don`t mess with "The Jester" !
At the next table, Mark Selby was meeting Jimmy Robertson to play their first session, ended on an 8-1 partial result in favor of "The Jester".
If the one who broke the ice was Robertson (Jimmy, not Neil!), Selby took all the remaining frames with breaks of 39, 27, 24, 56 and 82 to clinch the advantage of leading the youngster who’s at his first Crucible appearance.


Today, day 6 kicks off with:


13:00 (UK time)
Mark Selby ( 8 ) v. ( 1 ) Jimmy Robertson*
Mark Williams v. Jamie Cope (Last 16)


19:00 (UK time)
Judd Trump v. Martin Gould (Last 16)
John Higgins ( 6 ) v. ( 3 ) Stephen Lee*
*the second session


TV coverage:
13:00-16:00 (British EuroSport)
13:00-17:15 (BBC 2)
19:00-20:00 (BBC 2)
19:00-22:00 (British EuroSport)
20:30-22:00 (British EuroSport 2)
23:20-00:10 (BBC 2)
00:10-02:10 (BBC 2)

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