Mark Allen outlasts Jak Jones to seal semi-final spot at World Championship, will face John Higgins or Mark Selby

Mark Allen outlasted Jak Jones in a marathon match to seal a semi-final spot at the 2023 World Snooker Championship, where he will face John Higgins or Mark Selby.

The Northern Irishman, one of the form players of the season, didn’t have it all his own way against the dogged Jones, but he showed all his matchplay nous to get himself through to the last four at the Crucible for the first time since 2009.

Emerging from the bowels of the Crucible on Wednesday morning at 8-8, Jones set about continuing his excellent showing in the match – and the tournament – to date.

He took the early lead with a fine break that could have seen him start with a ton, but for a missed red with the frame already won.

The Welshman got in again as the next frame got under way and was coasting on 28 before missing a black off its spot.

Jones looked puzzled in the extreme, and shook his head throughout the remainder of the frame as Allen cashed in, taking it to move back level at 9-9.

Jones left the arena for a good while as he presumably sought to clear his head after that expensive mistake, but more errors at the start of the next saw Allen get in once more.

He only let Jones back to the table with the latter needing a snooker, and when it wasn’t forthcoming, it was back-to-back frames for Allen as he appeared to be taking control of the match from an increasingly shaky Jones.

The Welshman’s pot success rate for the session was 82%, having been up at 90% in the first session, and he missed another regulation blue in frame 20.

A re-rack got him off the hook, and he made the most of his second chance to compile a superb break of 124 that came from a long red starter.

At 10-10 the next frame was perhaps unsurprisingly tense and tight. It was Jones who blinked first, fouling when trying to nestle up to a red, and Allen stepped in to take what was the longest frame of the match to that point.

The Northern Irishman went straight off to get a hot drink, and when he returned he made the running to take a 64-22 lead that left Jones needing a snooker.

That didn’t come, and finally Allen was on the brink of the semi-finals at 12-10 up.

A missed blue at the start of the next continued the pattern of Jones errors, but Allen followed himself in with the white to pass up a decent chance, and thereafter the frame took on a bitty nature with Allen leading by 43 points with only 51 remaining.

The match duration was now over eight hours, with the final frame – as it was to turn out – ticking over 61 minutes, before Allen potted the brown and blue to seal victory.

McGill and Si still level pegging

Meanwhile, the first frame of the second session between Si Jiahui and Anthony McGill was long in the offing, but eventually the Chinese took it to take the lead at 5-4.

Another 30-minutes plus frame – which McGill stole at the death – meant only two frames had been completed in over an hour, and things progressed at a relatively glacial pace thereafter too, despite neither player being particularly renowned for their slow play.

McGill took the 11th frame to lead 6-5, but he was pegged back by Si as they headed for the interval in the same way they had begun the session: level.

The Scot strode ahead once more when they resumed to lead 7-6, and his advantage stretched to two frames as qualifier Si looked to be running out of steam.

But the 20-year-old’s displays at the Crucible are clearly no flash in the pan, and he showed commendable resolve to take the next two with impressive breaks of 80 and 86 to leave things beautifully poised at 8-8.

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