MARK Allen will face Jack Lisowski in the quarter-final of the victorianplumbing.co.uk UK Snooker Championship in York on Friday after a fine comeback win over China’s Wu Yize on Wednesday evening.
The world number three produced his best snooker when he most needed, having saw the 21-year-old Chinese player win four frames in succession to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead.
Allen himself went on a four-frame winning streak to seal victory with breaks of 110, 73, 100 and 80.
The Antrim man had described his form as ‘very depressing’ in the aftermath of his opening victory over Jackson Page, but there were clear signs in the first two frames that he was finding it as breaks of 53 and 82 put him 2-0 ahead.
Wu didn’t even pot a ball until midway through the third frame, by which time Allen had a 54-point cushion and was looking good for 3-0, but he found his stride and breaks of 77 and 117 levelled at the mid-session interval.
The pace of the game slowed dramatically in frame five, which Wu eventually won on the pink after more than an hour of play, and a run of 79 then put him 4-2 up before Allen’s relentless scoring took over and won him the match.
Lisowski, meanwhile, was a 6-4 winner over Ali Carter and Allen knows to expect another real test.
‘’Jack looks to be playing well. I think snooker is better whenever Jack is playing well. He plays how everyone wants to play and that is the biggest compliment I can give him. Hopefully I can stop him in his tracks.
‘’That was good there from me tonight. If I play like that I give myself a good chance of beating Jack. He’s riding the crest of a wave at the minute. It is up to me to go out there and stop him."
