Mark Allen has sympathy for ‘struggling’ John Higgins after Masters exit – ‘It’s sad seeing him the way he is’

Both players’ performances were full of errors but Higgins – who had led 3-1 in the early stages – seemed to particularly find it difficult to get his game in order.

Despite his victory, Allen told Eurosport: “I didn’t feel great today. I was clear mentally and everything that I was deciding, it just wasn’t happening for me.

“It was one that got away from John, really, he was 3-1 up and had big chances in the next two to really put the match to bed and I just hung on and hung on.”

Higgins was making a record 30th successive appearance at the tournament and has twice been a winner – picking up the trophy in 1999 and 2006.

But he has not been at his best this season and couldn’t come up with the goods when it mattered most against Allen.

Reflecting on his opponent’s performance, Allen said: “He looks like he’s struggling a bit in those closer moments. He just needs to find a bit of belief from somewhere.

“He’s too good to be talking the way he is because he’s one of the all-time greats. Anyone would love to have a career like John. It’s sad seeing him the way he is.”

Eurosport expert Alan McManus is a good friend of Higgins and admits he is struggling to watch him as his form continues to deteriorate.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been seeing quite a bit of it in the last couple of years.

“Unravelling is a strong word, but John’s such a pro and has such honesty with himself. He would probably agree that he did unravel a bit in that match.

“Those little demons, the demon on his shoulder, are not allowing him to express himself throughout the match and as a consequence of that, he’s not winning.

“It’s tough out here because, you see, now there aren’t 16 top-16 players. There’s about 32 top-16 players. There’s so many going around and you keep running into them and because of that, obviously, you’ve got to keep churning out great performances.”

It was the first victory for Allen at the Masters in six years – with his last win coming when won the competition in 2018.

After being reminded of that fact, he said: “I’m well aware of it. I was not looking forward to that decider knowing that I’d lost five first rounds in a row here. Three of them were in deciders – one of them against John.

“But all of a sudden, when you get out there, you forget all that. I’ve just seen a red in the middle [in the deciding frame] and thought this is my chance.”