Robertson becomes Champion of Champions
Neil Robertson has become
the new Champion of Champion after beating Mark Allen by 10-5 in the final
played in Coventry, at Ricoh Arena.This puts an end to the trophy drought that Robertson has experienced since winning the Wuxi Classic back in 2014, although the Champion of Champions is not a ranking tournament, but nonetheless is a very prestigious event specially designed for la crème de la crème.
The final battle between Robertson and Allen started on a balanced note, the Aussie taking a scrappy opener, to which Allen responded with a perfectly cued 103 break to make the scoreline go one apiece.
But things changed dramatically during the next frames, as Robertson fired in breaks of 43, 53, 114 and 69 to go all the way to 4-1 up. These were worrying times for the Pistol.
Still, a few mistakes
during frame 6 proved quite costly for "The Thunder from Downunder"
as Allen managed to win his second frame of the match.What followed next was a classical snooker duel, which Neil prevailed with a top break of 54 to re-establish his 3-frames dominance.
Allen fought back with a 60 break, but the first session was going to be closed by Robbo's 74 break which guaranteed him a comfortable lead of 6-3.
As referee Paul Collier announced the start of the second, and last, session, Robertson hurried up and hit in runs of 60 and 40 to go 8-3 up and make us think twice if this final was ever going to see a mid-session interval.
But Allen answered our
questions in style, the pride of Northern Ireland using breaks of 25, 22 and
112 to pull back two consecutive frames.The next frame proved to be quite a nerve-raking one, as it lasted no less than 52 minutes and it was indeed a poor display of snooker mostly due to its importance and gravity.
In the end though, Robertson grabbed the bull by its horns and added a more fluent frame to his collection to end the final at 10-5.
In the interview the followed after the final, Allen openly admitted that he was "nervous from beginning to end" and "never really settled down", blaming himself for the outcome of the match and stating his disappointment with his way of playing against a "former world champion and a former world number one."
A genuinely delighted
Robertson said that he "enjoyed the tournament from start to finish"
and he considers this to be quite a "challenging" event because
unlike the Masters where you automatically qualify just by being in Top 16, for
this one you have to actually win tournaments.Neil shared the glory with his adorable boy who was allowed to stay up late just in case his daddy wins the tournament. Guess it all turned out pretty well in the end ;-)
Next stop on the snooker map is of course the long-waited UK Championship which will kick off on November 24th in York. Can't wait for this one!
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