2015 Champion of Champions: Robertson & Allen meet in final

01:17:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

The marvellous 2015 Champion of Champions tournament has reached its final phase as only two players are standing: Neil Robertson and Mark Allen; both of them had tough semis to play, so tomorrow is going to be an interesting cross of cues.

Neil Robertson had to stand out in front of the man who knelt down John Higgins by 6-5, Joe Perry. Unfortunately for "The Gentleman of snooker" today wasn't a victorious one and the match itself was a classic display of "bits and pieces" if I may say so.

Robertson was the first one in, a break of 44 handing him the opener, but Perry responded by taking the next one to draw level.

The Aussie took revenge by winning the 3rd frame on the black, despite Perry making a 47 break earlier on and added a perfect 144 total clearance to go 3-1 up.

The mid-session interval seemed to have helped Joe as he used runs of 44 and 39 to reduce his deficit, but Robertson won the 6th frame on the black, despite the fact that he gave no less than 26 penalty points to his opponent.

However, Perry hit two consecutive breaks of 61 to make the scoreline go 4-4, but it was a bit too late. Robertson made breaks of 61 and 81 to quickly put an end to a very long and tough semi-final (final scoreline 6-4) and booked himself a place in the grand final.

Around 7pm, Mark Allen and Kyren Wilson entered the arena in order to cross their cues for the remaining final spot.

Kyren was the first to break the ice with a solid 51 break, while Allen's breaks of 61, 80, 30 and 36 were helping him fly far, far away at 3-1 up.

These were worrying times for the Shanghai Masters champion, especially since after the interval Allen continued to consolidate his leading position with runs of 42 and 33. It was 4-1.

But the lad is a tough cookie and proved he deserves to be in this tournament and has every right in the book to be knocking on Top 16's doors, as he fired in runs of 65, 44 and 56 to pull back two consecutive frames.

A long and scrappy 8th frame came along, with the majority of the reds landing awkwardly on the left side of the table, near the cushion, in the end the one prevailing this test being Allen with a top break of 40 to which he skilfully added an 88 to win fair and square by 6-3.

So, tomorrow is the big day! Neil Robertson will face Mark Allen and the 188BET Champion of Champions tournament will have a new winner.

The first session will start at 1pm and the second one at 7pm (both hours are UK time). The match will be broadcasted by ITV 4.

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