MARK Allen hit a 147 in the third frame of his 6-5 win over Mark Selby in the quarter-final of the MrQ Masters on Friday evening.
The Antrim man’s sixth career maximum in professional competition, and first in a triple crown event, brought him back to 2-1 behind after some early struggles.
Three missed blacks off the spot had cost him the first two frames. He had two good chances to build a lead in frame one but missed a straight-forward black off the spot and then a yellow, allowing Selby to take control and seal a scrappy frame on the brown. Frame two followed a similar pattern, with Allen missing two more blacks off the spot and allowing Selby to clear the last two reds and colours and go 2-0 up.
Selby won the two frames after Allen’s maximum to move 4-1 ahead, but Allen then reeled off four in a row, highlighted by a break of 103 in frame seven, to take the lead for the first time in an increasingly scrappy encounter.
Selby levelled at 5-5 with a break of 55 but an early break of 51 laid the foundations for Allen to take the decider.
The winner will face Ali Carter in Saturday’s second semi-final. The Londoner knocked out defending champion Judd Trump after a thrilling quarter-final which went down to the wire.
Carter was losing 5-4 and facing an exit in the 10th frame only for his opponent to over-cut the matchball red, allowing the 44-year-old to seize his chance and produce a 43 clearance to take it to a decider.
Boosted by that momentum a break of 64 then saw Carter, who had been 4-2 up only for Trump to fight back with a break of 129 on his way to winning three frames in succession, through to only his second Masters semi in 13 attempts.
“For all the money, I looked like going 5-3 in front and lost my composure for a couple of frames,” Carter said in his post-match interview.
“I felt like I worked really hard but was delighted to make an unbelievable clearance to force a decider.
“Then how I’ve held myself together there, I don’t know - that’s a feather in my cap.”
