Haikou World Open 2012 (the final): Allen two frames away from victory after first session

Mark Allen is on fire

Mark Allen leads Stephen Lee by an incredible 8-1 scoreline as the first session of this year's final of the World Open comes to an end.  

The Northern Ireland player needs two more frames to collect his first ever ranking title, after coming very close to achieving this goal during last December UK Championship, when he lost to Judd Trump by 10-8.

It would feel a bit wrong to call what happened until now between Allen and Lee a battle of cues, because the match seemed more like a one way traffic, with "The Pistol" shooting one century break after another and cashing one frame after another.

The match had a pretty nervy start, but Allen managed to take the opener and put himself out there, in the spotlight, with a great 104 for a 2-0 lead, while runs of 50 and 134 were letting his opponent to be doomed in his seat as the mid-session interval was kicking off.

At returning into the arena, Allen continued to dominate with a 53 break and was nearly about to go 7-0 up, when he stopped at 55 due to a horrible miss. Lee took advantage of this situation and won his first frame of the match with a great clearance of 67.

Things don't look good for Lee

A big smile appeared on Lee's face, but his opponent was sure to wash it up after taking the next frame, frame that was turning the scoreline into 6-1.

However, Lee had a huge chance to reduce the gap during the 8^th frame a break of 49 leaving Mark needing a snooker. The safety shots battle began, but Stephen made a terrible mistake and left a free ball on, 39 points later, Allen cashing one more for the road.

The last frame of the first session went Allen’s way with a bit of help from a 123 break, thus the scoreline becoming 8-1.

The match restarts from 11.30 (UK time) and I must say that Mark Allen had all the chances in the world to lift the trophy at the end of it.