MARK Allen is out of the Johnstone’s Paint Masters after losing his semi-final against Shaun Murphy on Saturday afternoon.
The Antrim man had taken a 2-0 lead, but Murphy took charge from there to win 6-3, with the highlight a 147 maximum in frame six.
Murphy had managed just six points in those first two frames, but over the next four frames Allen was restricted to a mere 13 and struggled to find any rhythm.
After Murphy’s flawless 147 had stretched his lead to 4-2 he built a 30-point lead in a scrappy frame seven, but Allen finally worked a scoring opening to make a frame-winning break of 54 and reduce the deficit to one.
It was back to two when Murphy compiled a break of 72 in frame eight and a green-to-black clearance in frame nine got him over the line.
‘‘Shaun was much better than me today so I have no complaints,’’ admitted Allen.
‘‘I started well and felt really good and in control of the match. But I missed a bad blue in frame four and struggled to get chances after that.
‘‘That was probably just down to Shaun playing well to be honest. He was just flawless. His long game was especially good.
‘‘I could have got it to 5-4 but made a bit of a mess of that last frame.
‘‘It was great to be part of the occasion, though, and I was really rooting for Shaun to make the maximum after I could no longer win that frame.’'
Murphy will face the winner of Saturday’s second semi-final between world number one Judd Trump and world number two and world champion Kyren Wilson.
