Exclusive: Mark Allen savours hard-fought English Open title

Mark Allen labelled his English Open triumph as one of his most satisfying. 

The former UK and Masters champion, 39, went through the ringer to get his hands on a 12th ranking title — which moves him level with 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy in the all-time list.

Comeback king Allen was on the brink at 3-0 down in his last-16 clash with Ding Junhui, 4-0 behind to Elliot Slessor in the quarter-finals and 5-3 adrift of Jak Jones in the semi-finals just to reach Sunday’s showpiece final.

And the Northern Irish potter saw a commanding 6-2 afternoon lead evaporate and needed to win the last two frames to pip Zhou Yuelong 9-8 as he moved up to seventh in the official world rankings after banking the £100,000 top prize.

“I think it’s one of my best wins ever,” Allen told SportsBoom in an exclusive interview after his last-night heroics. 

“I didn’t play my best stuff this week but I just hung in there when things were going badly.”

“There were a few comebacks. Obviously I relied on a few mistakes from my opponents, but sometimes the writing’s on the wall. Maybe it was destined to be with the matches I’ve won from positions where I had no right to win.”

“The encouraging thing for me is I didn’t play very well, but I’ve still won the English Open. The signs are good for the season ahead.”

Allen is renowned for having bottle in abundance and his will to win trumped all as the lifted the Steve Davis trophy in Brentwood, Essex. 

“That never-say-die attitude is something everybody should have,” admitted Allen. 

“When you’re out there what else are you going to do? You may as well give it your all. It winds me up when I see people and they’re not giving it everything. You get one chance at a career, one chance at any given match or shot so why not give it your best?”

“On any given day it might not be good enough, but the least you can do is try.”

Long Time Coming

Allen was one of the game’s prolific winners as he pocketed six big titles during the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons.

Last term, Allen openly admitted he felt “lost” with his game but battled his way to five semi-finals and won the big-money Riyadh Season Snooker Championship golden-ball event despite his best snooker eluding him for large parts of the campaign.

This win is one he will treasure and after ending a long wait for a ranking crown, he said: “I know it was 19 months, but I won in Saudi and a win’s a win at the end of the day for me.”

“It didn’t feel like I’d been waiting that long. I obviously got to the business end of events a lot last season and won in Saudi.”

“But I didn’t feel my game was in great shape. I feel it’s in much better shape now even though I didn’t quite show it when winning the English.”

“It’s the sign of a great player when you’re able to win a tournament when you’ve been nowhere near your best.”

Allen will now race to Cheltenham racecourse for this week’s British Open, where he gets his charge for back-to-back titles underway on Tuesday night.

“I’m not going to lie, I was absolutely shattered in that final session,” admitted Antrim ace Allen. “This week has got the better of me. I’ve been here probably more than the staff!”

“I’ll be glad to rest as much as possible before playing in Cheltenham.”

“If I get through that first match I feel like I can be a big part of the tournament again.”

“I like Cheltenham, I like the random draw style for the one event of the year.”