Mark Allen sees off Mark Williams to set up Northern Ireland Open semi-final against Neil Robertson

Defending champion Mark Allen earned a place in the semi-finals of the Northern Ireland Open with a thrilling 5-4 win over Mark Williams on Friday.

Allen has now recorded 12 consecutive victories in front of his home crowd at Waterfront Hall in Belfast, including a memorable comeback win from 8-6 down to beat John Higgins 9-8 in last year’s final.

The world No. 8 faces a big challenge next against the highest-ranked player left in the tournament, Australia’s Robertson.

The battle of the Marks was a meeting of the only two remaining former winners in a field where the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Higgins fell before the quarter-finals.

Things didn’t look good for Allen early on, though, as Williams took the opening two frames.

The Welshman produced breaks of 62 and 70 to get off to a solid start, but the Pistol responded impressively with a break of 77 to get on the board.

Another strong break, this time of 74, helped the Northern Irishman draw level at 2-2 at the mid-session interval in an entertaining encounter.

Allen seemed to have found his rhythm and that continued after the break with more excellent shot-making that ultimately resulted in Williams needing snookers and conceding the fifth frame to go 3-2 behind.

The Northern Irishman’s bid for a half-century fell just short at 48 when he overran a pink in the following frame, but he still did enough to move one frame away from victory.

However, Williams fought his way back into contention by winning two long, gruelling frames in a row.

He edged a tense, tactical seventh frame that lasted well over half an hour, before again finding a way to come out on top of an even longer following frame and set up a decider.

A Williams miss on an ambitious attempt to cut the black eventually gave Allen the chance to pull clear and book his place in the last four, much to the delight of the jubilant home crowd.

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