Mark Allen (Photo by Benutzer:Bill da Flute)
Mark Allen fought back from 6-2 down to 7-7 against Wu Yize in their World Snooker Championship semi-final, in a session which included the longest frame ever at the Crucible.
In the other semi-finals, John Higgins is just four frames away from the final as he leads Shaun Murphy 13-11 after three sessions.
Both semi-finals continue later today for an intriguing conclusion to tremendous battles, with first to 17 frames going through to the final.
Higgins Takes Step Towards Crucible Final
So far there has never been more than two frames between them, but Higgins finished the evening strongly by taking the last two to give himself the advantage coming into the home straight. Just 17 days short of his 51st birthday, victory would make him the oldest ever Triple Crown finalist and would equal Stephen Hendry’s record of nine Crucible finals. Murphy has lost only one of his five previous Sheffield semi-finals and will hope he can take six of the last nine frames to turn the tie.
Starting at 8-8, Murphy, champion in 2005, took the opening frame tonight with breaks of 60 and 44, then Higgins controlled the next with 55 and 44 to level at 9-9. Frame 19 came down to the colours and Higgins laid a difficult snooker on the brown, which created the chance for him to clear to the pink and go ahead. Back came Murphy with a break of 82 for 10-10.
In frame 21, four-time champion Higgins made 63 then Murphy had a chance to counter but on 15 his attempted red along the top cushion stayed in the jaws and he soon fell 11-10 behind. Once again Murphy fought back and his break of 105 was his 100th century at the Crucible, becoming the fifth player to reach that milestone.
A break of 70 in the 23rd proved enough to edge Higgins ahead again, and in the last frame of the night he crashed in a long red to set up a run of 101 and finish the session in style.
Allen Fights Back As New Longest Frame Record Set
An extraordinary frame at the end of an incident-packed session lasted 100 minutes and 19 seconds, smashing the previous record of 85 minutes and 22 seconds set in 2022 in a match between Mark Selby and Yan Bingtao.
On this occasion, with eight reds left and Allen leading 43-13, there was a spell of 55 minutes without a ball being potted, as the reds clustered around the black which was blocking a top corner pocket. Eventually Allen knocked the black in and Wu made a break of 41 which helped him lead by 28 points by the time they got to the blue.
He then accidentally knocked the black in when trying to pot the blue, which left Allen needing only one snooker, and once they were on the pink, Wu made one superb escape when he was trapped behind the black. The 22-year-old from China finally potted the pink to a baulk corner to bring the epic frame to an end.
Still, it was a fine session for Allen as he had already won five frames in a row to take the lead, having trailed overnight. They return on Saturday at 10am for eight more frames, then come back for the conclusion at 7pm, with first to 17 to go through to the final for meet Shaun Murphy or John Higgins. Both Allen and Wu are aiming to become the 34th player to reach the final in Sheffield. Northern Ireland’s 40-year-old Allen has lost his two previous semi-finals, while Wu had never won a match at the Crucible before this year.
The opening frame today came down to the last red and Wu attempted a thin cut to a top corner but failed to contact the red, handing Allen an opening to close to 6-3. The next lasted 60 minutes and Wu led 59-0 with six reds left when he missed the brown, and eventually he rattled the final blue in the jaws of a top corner, allowing Allen to clear. In contrast, frame 11 lasted just 11 minutes as Allen made a 145 total clearance, the highest break at the Crucible so far this year, to reduce his deficit to 6-5.
Wu had a scoring opportunity in the 12th but missed a routine black on 17 and soon found himself level. After the interval, Allen kept the initiative with a run of 121, his ninth century of the tournament, to take the lead for the first time, before the marathon final frame left them all square.
