Mark Allen made light work of the challenge of Si Jiahui in their last-16 encounter at the Johnstone’s Paint Masters at Alexandra Palace on Tuesday evening.
Antrim’s world number four, champion in 2018, was a 6-2 winner against the world number 13, with his tactical game coming to the fore against the Masters debutant.
The first frame proved crucial as Si built a lead coming down to the last few reds, but Allen’s craft helped him claw his way back into it and eventually win it on the blue.
He had the first chance in frame two also but after putting the opening red he went in-off and left the balls wide open for Si, who cashed in with a run of 103.
Allen responded with a century of his own, 111, and added a break of 70 to go to the mid-session interval 3-1 up.
A break of 60 from Si reduced the deficit to 3-2, but he was to manage only 28 points in the next three frames as Allen added breaks of 94 and 80 to get over the line.
‘‘I played very well there, admitted Allen. I only really missed one or two over the course of the match and felt I got the better of the safety side of it.
‘‘This is the best arena in front of amazing fans and now I’m really looking forward to playing Mark again. We’ve had some battles over the years and I’d expect this to be the same.‘’
The pair met at the same stage last year, when Allen came out the right side of a deciding frame after making a maximum in the early stages of the contest.
