Mark Allen beat Ronnie in the semi-finals, and Luca Brecel in the final to win the 2024 Riyadh Snooker Championship.

Congratulations Mark Allen!

Here are the reports shared by WST

The Semi-finals

BRECEL TO MEET ALLEN IN RIYADH FINAL

Mark Allen will face Luca Brecel in the final of the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship on Friday night, with the winner to lift the trophy and bank £250,000.

Brecel scored a 4-2 victory over Mark Williams in the semi-finals and remains in the hunt for his first individual title since capturing the World Championship 19 months ago. Defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan had hoped to set up a repeat of last year’s final against Brecel, but went down 4-2 against Allen.

O’Sullivan took the opening frame by clearing from the last red, and he led 53-1 in the next when he missed a mid-range red, which proved a turning point as Allen made an excellent 53 clearance. A run of 56 put Allen 2-1 ahead, and he came from 40-8 down in the next to snatch it with a run of 60. O’Sullivan pulled one back with a 75, but early in frame six Allen converted a clever double to a centre pocket, and went on to finish in style with a 134 total clearance. 

The Northern Irishman is aiming for his first title since the Players Championship in March, and victory would match his biggest ever pay day, equalling the £250,000 he won at the 2022 UK Championship.

Brecel won the first frame of his semi-final, then Williams made breaks of 103 and 58 to lead 2-1. Brecel enjoyed a huge slice of luck in frame four as, escaping from a snooker, he fluked a red and finished with position on the black, setting him up for a run of 59 for 2-2. Williams led 41-16 in he fifth when he missed a tricky plant, handing his opponent the chance to clear with 38 to edge ahead.

Frame six lasted 46 minutes, the longest of the tournament so far, and came down to a safety battle on the brown. Williams had a chance for 3-3, but failed to pot the brown to a baulk corner, and Brecel took the chance to reach his first final since this event in March.

The Final

Mark Allen won his first title of the season and equalled the biggest pay-day of his career by beating Luca Brecel 5-1 in the final of the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in Saudi Arabia.

Arguably snooker’s toughest match player, Allen scored a superb 4-2 win over defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-finals and went on to outplay last year’s World Champion Brecel in the final to land his first trophy since the Players Championship nine months ago. The £250,000 top prize at this lucrative 12-man invitation event matches the cheque Allen received at the 2022 UK Championship.

It’s his seventh title within the last 26 months, and though it carries no ranking points, coming through such a strong field will give the 38-year-old Northern Irishman a huge boost of confidence going into 2025. Having recently turned to coach Lee Walker to make subtle changes to his technique, the world number four carries plenty of momentum into the new year. 

Allen’s form was tracking in a positive direction in recent weeks, and having suffered narrow defeats in the semi-finals of the recent Victorian Plumbing UK Championship and BetVictor Scottish Open, today was the breakthrough he was looking for. 

During the three-day event in Riyadh, no player managed to pot the golden ball which is unique to this tournament and earn the $1 million prize for a 167 ‘super maximum’ – Zhang Anda came closest when he took 12 reds with blacks on the opening day. But local crowds thoroughly enjoyed the chance to see the world’s leading stars in action, and with O’Sullivan’s academy now fully operational in the heart of the Kingdom’s capital city, there is a sense that snooker’s popularity is growing fast.

The opening frame of the final came down to the colours and was settled when Allen, down 25 points, missed the green to a bauk corner, leaving Brecel the chance to go 1-0 up. The Belgian led 49-0 in the second when he missed a tricky red to a top corner, and that proved a turning point as Allen made a 104 for 1-1, then dominated frame three and compiled a 109 in the fourth to lead 3-1 at the interval.

In frame five, Brecel made 43 then ran out of position, and Allen responded with 50 then later got the better of a safety exchange on the last red and went on to extend his advantage to 4-1. The sixth came down to a safety battle with three reds on the table and Allen, trailing 36-32, drilled a red down a side cushion into a top corner, the shot of the tournament, to initiate a match-winning run of 31.

“To win an event with the top ten players in the world is extra special,” said Allen. “My safety was good all week, I scored well and made the right choices. I was nervous at the end but I held myself together. The matches here are short so if you can steal a few frames you can hurt your opponent. Winning the second frame tonight with a good break gave me the confidence to go on.

“I worked with Lee Walker at the UK Championship, I’m not sure yet where I will go with that. I am trying to play faster and enjoy it more. There was a time when I was winning matches and even winning tournaments but not enjoying the way I was playing and I knew something had to change. Partly the work with Lee and partly figuring it out for myself, as well as working with my psychologist, has helped me feel like everything is coming together. 

“Next year I want to keep winning and enjoying my snooker. There are big tournaments coming up, leading up to Sheffield. The world title is the one missing from my CV and that’s what I will keep working for. The money here is great but I wasn’t thinking about that, I just try to win tournaments.

“You could see the difference here compared to when we came in March, crowds were better. It’s like when we first went to China, it will take time to build up. As long as we keep coming back here and getting bigger crowds, it will be great for the players.”

Brecel, who missed the chance to win his first title since his Crucible triumph 19 months ago, said: “I made a few mistakes but Mark is really tough to play against. Overall I feel I’m getting better and I’m really looking forward to next year.“

Here are the scores for Ronnie’s semi-final match:

Jimmy White commenting on the floor after the match said that Ronnie didn’t play badly. It is true in that he did show some very good things even in defeat. What happened though was that the odd unexpected mistakes crept in and I can’t help but wondering how much the schedule in this event has something to do with it. Ronnie’s QF match had finished at nearly 3am local time. He can’t have been in bed before 4am and with the adrenaline probably still pumping he he may not have been able to fall asleep immediately. And that’s the best case scenario … he may have want to eat something after the match and unwind a bit with his son and his friends. You will tell me, he could have slept all morning but that’s not the same thing. I’m certain that he must have been tired and when that happens, no matter who you are,lapses in concentration are bound to happen as well.

And the same is true for both finalists. There were two centuries by Allen in that final but there were quite a few unexpected mistakes from both players as well. Luca in particular played nowhere near as well as he had in previous matches. It may have been pressure, but it may have been fatigue as well. Again it finished at ungodly hours. Again it was nearly 3am in Riyadh when Allen potted the last balls. It’s not great to say the least. I know that there is a lot of night life in Riyadh, but this wasn’t a party, it wasn’t a rave in a nightclub, it was the final match of a very lucrative event with both protagonists trying to make a living from their sport.

Anyway … here are some images of Ronnie’s semi-final. They were shared by WST.