Mark Allen retains Haikou title
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 4, 2013
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Mark Allen hits a ball in Haikou World Open final. |
Defending champion Mark Allen overpowered Matthew Stevens 10-4 on Sunday to claim his second successive Haikou World Open crown.
In doing so, Allen became the first player to win the same world ranking event in back-to-back years since John Higgins captured the Welsh Open crown in 2010 and 2011.
Allen displayed the form which saw him cruise past John Higgins in Saturday's semi-final, storming ahead with breaks of 48, 52 and 93 in taking the first three frames. Stevens led 55-0 in the fourth only for Allen to make a superb 58 clearance for 4-0.
Stevens finally found his building groove after a 15-minute break, and runs to 49 and 67 earned him his first frame of the final before a well-taken 112 - his first ton of the tournament - made it 4-2.
However, 27-year-old Allen reopened a four-frame advantage, which included a break of exactly 100 to go 6-2 ahead. Stevens took a scrappy last frame of the session to keep his hopes of a fight-back alive at 6-3.
Stevens appeared set to narrow the deficit further but poor positional play in the 10th frame cost him dear, with Allen snatching it following a brilliant long pot on the blue.
A break of 100 saw Stevens back to 7-4, only for Allen to win the next with a 55. And when he cleared from the last red in the 13th frame to make it 9-4, his opponent's hopes had vanished. Allen made a composed 68 in frame 14 to clinch the title.
