Exclusive: Mark Allen Hoping Champion of Champions Success Can Spark a Return to Form

Mark Allen is desperate to find a spark to kickstart his season at the Champion of Champions.

The world No.3 is the defending champion this week in Bolton and is bidding to complete a hat-trick of titles at the prestigious 16-man invitational tournament.

But the 38-year-old potter is suffering with a crisis of confidence with his game despite winning six big titles in the past two seasons.

Expectations have changed for the Northern Irishman, who firmly feels he should be competing at the backend of events on a regular basis.

It was only a year ago Allen hammered Judd Trump 10-3 in the final and went on to win the Shoot Out and Players Championship ranking tournaments shortly after.

But the Antrim revealed to SportsBoom.com “I’m just struggling for confidence, if I’m honest. I’m just making too many mistakes and not making the most of my chances.”

“Expectations are maybe different now. I feel like I should be winning or competing for every tournament that I enter at the minute and I’m not quite doing that which is frustrating.”

“I probably need to be a bit more patient and not be as hard on myself as I currently am. That’s not my best attribute sometimes.”

“I have good memories from last year and that transformed my season. I hadn’t really done much up to that and then I won the Shoot Out and Players Championship after that.”

“Hopefully it can do the same thing for me again this year. Even if I don’t win it and I just get some good performances and some confidence.”

Allen came through his group on the opening day with wins over World Seniors champion Igor Figuiredo and World Championship runner-up Jak Jones.

He has become one of the toughest match players on the tour in recent seasons and has been criticised by pundits for being too methodical at the table.

But seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry was pleased to see the left-hander to the game be the scruff of the nerve when the deck was stacked against him against Jones earlier this week.

“I felt like that match with Jak Jones was really getting away from me early doors. I had so many chances those first two frames,” admitted Allen, who returns for Friday night’s semi-final.