Six seeded players had left the tournament in round one, and yesterday, Mark Allen became the 7th one as the first week1 of the championship came to its end, and the first round, the round of 32, concluded.
Chris Wakelin, playing with “ultimate self belief”, had never won a match at the Crucible before this week but claimed another huge scalp at the Halo World Championship with an outstanding 13-6 victory over Mark Allen to reach the quarter-finals.
World number 20 Wakelin beat Xing Zihao and Martin O’Donnell in the qualifying rounds to earn a fourth appearance at the Theatre of Dreams. He then knocked out Neil Robertson and followed up with a tremendous performance against 11-time ranking event winner Allen. Nuneaton’s 33-year-old Wakelin will meet now Zhao Xintong or Lei Peifan – both of whom also came through the qualifying rounds – with the winner to reach the semi-finals.
This has been a breakthrough season for Wakelin, earning his biggest ever pay day of £75,000 when he reached the final of the International Championship in November, and holding a top 16 status for long enough to make a Johnstone’s Paint Masters debut in January. Few would have expected him to go this deep at the Crucible, but he has found the knack of playing every shot on its merits and staying composed in pressure situations. This was his first ever best-of-25 contest but the former Shoot Out champion played with fluency and confidence as he ran away from his more experienced opponent.
Allen’s biggest career ambition to win the world title remains unfulfilled and he is still the most decorated player not to reach the final, but he goes back to Northern Ireland with the consolation of becoming the 11th player to make a 147 at the Crucible, having compiled a marvellous maximum in the 13th frame.
Otherwise Wakelin dictated the first two sessions, building a 12-4 lead with top breaks of 56, 69, 84, 53, 119, 71 and 75. Allen took the first frame tonight with a break of 74, then potted ten reds with blacks in the next before missing a tricky 11th black on 81. He might have closed to 12-7 but over-cut the final brown to a baulk corner in frame 19, and Wakelin slotted in brown, blue and pink for one of his career-best wins.
“I felt as if I really dominated the match,” said Wakelin who is now guaranteed £50,000. “I’m playing some really good stuff. Mark came back a bit tonight and I was relieved to see him miss that brown so I could get over the line. Mark was really nice with his words afterwards, he gave me a lot of encouragement.
“From where I was a couple of years ago, I have got the ultimate belief in myself now. I feel I have really matured as a player and the sky’s the limit. I won’t get ahead of myself. There are some very good players left in this tournament and one of them is me. It doesn’t matter who I play next, whoever it is will have to play very well to beat me.
“The first time I came here was about 15 years ago, I sat in the crowd and watched Mark win. So to be here and beat him, one of the best in the world, feels great. It has been a crazy few days.”
Allen said: “I lost every close frame, I think there were seven in all. That’s not like me at all, I usually get more than my fair share. That was the difference. Chris played very well in patches but I still had plenty of chances to make it closer. All I can do it keep working hard and try to get better. It has been a disappointing season, nothing like the previous two seasons consistency wise.“
Looking back on the 147, he added: “Things were going badly, I was 10-2 down. I decided very early in the break I was going to go for it because I needed something to gee myself up and get the crowd on my side. To earn someone in the crowd £25,000 was a great buzz. Then I had another chance tonight for a 147, which would have been £147,000 and that was another amazing buzz. The crowd were cheering me on and trying to get me back into the match. If I could have got to 12-8 then Chris might have got clincher’s disease. But I didn’t make it close enough.“
I have written this before, but I feel the need to write it again: Chris Wakelin transformation after winning the Shoot-out is truly remarkable. I never thought that winning that event, an event that I still believe should not be ranking, could trigger such deep metamorphosis. I still wonder what it is actually that made such transformation possible. Was it the feeling of “being a winner” and the belief that came with it? Was it the “freedom” induced by getting that big price money, and not having to worry about supporting his family, at least for a while? Or was it something else? Only Chris will know … maybe. I write “maybe” because, often, even we do not fully understand what’s going on in our own mind.
Here is Mark Allen’s 147
Ronnie will start his second round match today, against Pang Junxu. I have no expectations. His participation was in doubt until the last minute, himself said that winning his opening match would be a good result for him, the way he felt he is playing with his new cue. He’s playing and he won that first match. Anything more would be a bonus. If Ronnie were to win, and continue to win, he would now play every day until the end of the Championship, without any “rest” day.
week as a span of 7 days rather than “calendar week, from Monday to Sunday”. ↩︎
Ronnie O'Sullivan 