Mark Allen tumbles out of Welsh Open after below-par display in 5-1 loss to Robert Milkins

Robert Milkins’ renaissance continued as he sent a below-par Mark Allen crashing out of the Welsh Open 5-1 at the quarter-final stage. After the lows of leaving the Turkish Masters in disgrace 12 months ago, Milkins has hauled himself off the canvas in some style. Ad He won the Gibraltar Open shortly after his troubles in Turkey, and has carried that positive momentum into the current campaign.

Welsh OpenIn-form Milkins stuns weary Selby to make last 1615/02/2023 AT 23:40 A series of good results, the highlight being a run to the semi-finals of the German Masters, raised confidence — and belief that he could win. That belief was important in Llandudno on Friday, as he and Allen were well below their best but Milkins did enough to book a meeting with Tian Pengfei. Murphy powers into semi-finals of Welsh Open with victory over Yuan O'Sullivan bites tip off cue as he crashes out of Welsh Open There was a lot on the line in a financial sense for both players, with them in the hunt for £150,000 BetVictor Series bonus, and Milkins and Allen made tentative starts.

A host of chances were passed up by both players in the opening frame, and it was in the balance on the colours. Allen coughed up a chance and Milkins picked them off to edge in front. The standard remained low in the second, but Milkins eked out a break of 41 and then powered in a superb long red to double his advantage.

Allen arrived in Wales as a three-time winner in 2022/23, and the season’s standout performer. He said he was working on a technical aspect of his game, and it did appear as if he was not fully settled. He seized on a poor safety from Milkins in the third to get some table time, but needed a number of chances to open his account.