Allen sees off Wilson to reach Crucible quarters

Former world number one Mark Allen defeated Kyren Wilson 13-9 in a thrilling contest to reach the World Championship quarter-finals.

Northern Ireland's Allen led 5-0 but then lost six successive frames to trail 6-5 against the 2024 winner.

But Allen had moved into a 9-7 advantage by the end of Friday's middle session and managed to win four of the six frames on Saturday to reach the last eight for a sixth time.

The 40-year-old's best performances at the Crucible came in 2009 and 2023 when he reached the semi-finals, and he will face either 2013 finalist Barry Hawkins or three-time world champion Mark Williams next.

Hawkins holds a 10-6 advantage, with that match to be played to a finish from 19:00 BST on Saturday.

Allen's quarter-final, another best-of-25-frame contest, will begin on Tuesday and finish on Wednesday.

Saturday looked set to provide a thrilling day of action at the Crucible, as seven world champions featured among the 12 players involved, with seven-time winner Ronnie O'Sullivan facing four-time champion John Higgins at 19:00 BST.

Allen had almost four months as world number one in 2024 and has won two-thirds of snooker's Triple Crown, having lifted the Masters title in 2018 and the UK Championship in 2022.

He believes he can still win a world title - if he can raise his level of performance in Sheffield.

"I've got as much out of this event as I've deserved. I've not played well enough to win it," Allen said. "There are no lucky world champions, you just have to go out there and earn it, but I've not earned it yet.

"But I still think I have got the ability to do it. That's why I keep on coming back.

"Any win here is a good win, but the biggest positive is I'm in the quarter-finals and I'm in second gear so there's plenty more to come. I don't feel great in my game; maybe I'm just being too hard on myself.

"I'm not anywhere close to being at my best, but I'm still doing a lot of good things. A lot of good safety, good potting, but I need to score better. I only made three breaks and that's not going to cut it, but the rest of the game is good."

At the end of the match, Wilson gave some encouragement to Allen.

"Kyren said 'if you play like this, you're going to be hard to stop' and that's a big boost coming from someone like him," said Allen.

Wilson said: "Mark is one who I'm always rooting for, he is a great lad, down to earth.

"We're in similar bits in our career where we feel we put out heart and soul into the sport and into the game. I said to him 'you've got every chance of winning it'.

"We all know what a battler he is and I would love to see him win it."

The opening eight frames were split in the match between Australia's 2010 world champion Neil Robertson and England's Chris Wakelin.

Robertson, helped by breaks of 65 and 59, moved 4-1 ahead, but Wakelin made a run of 77 in frame six to reignite his challenge and added the next two frames in a match that resumes on Sunday afternoon (14:30 BST).