MARK Allen goes into today’s second session of his first-round match against Robbie Williams at the Cazoo World Snooker Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield needing three frames to wrap up victory after building a 7-2 lead on Tuesday afternoon.
The number four seed fired in a break of 70 to take the opener and added the next two to put Williams, playing at the Crucible for the first time in eight years, under early pressure.
The Stoke man did get on the board in frame four with a break of 86 but Allen won a tactical fifth to restore a three-frame advantage.
Frame six proved pivotal. After an early run of 48, Allen let Williams in and it looked as though he was going to steal the frame. However, a missed green when over-stretching on 68 was to prove costly and after a safety battle it was Allen who took the remaining colours to lead 5-1.
A break of 80 stretched the lead to 6-1 but Williams stopped the rot with the highest break of the match, 105, in the next.
Allen then rounded off a solid session by moving five clear again, winning frame nine in two scoring visits.
The match is due to finish on Wednesday afternoon, with the winner due to face either John Higgins or Jamie Jones in round two.
Mark Williams became the sixth seed to crash out as he lost 10-9 to China’s Si Jiahui.
The Welshman took a 5-4 lead into the second session of the match but Si, semi-finalist last year, took the first four frames of the session to lead 8-5.
Williams closed to 8-7 but Si moved to within one frame of victory by winning frame 16. He had a great chance to seal victory in the next but missed a pink to the middle and saw Williams close out the frame on the colours and then force a decider by winning frame 18 in two visits.
However, Si only needed one chance on the decider and after Williams missed a difficult red to the middle, a composed break of 77 got him over the line. He now faces another Welshman, Jak Jones, in round two.
In the morning session, Kyren Wilson built a 8-1 lead over Dominic Dale, while Jack Lisowski edged 5-4 ahead in a match which saw both players hit four 60-plus breaks each.
