Ronnie O’Sullivan and Jimmy White laud ‘instinctive’ Luca Brecel after storming past Mark Allen at English Open

Luca Brecel’s impressive performance in the English Open semi-final victory over Mark Allen caught the attention of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Jimmy White, both of whom lavished praise on the Belgian.

The Belgian chalked up breaks of 61, 55, 50 and 71 as he raced into a five-frame lead, and although Allen threatened a comeback at 5-2, Brecel held his nerve to see off his opponent. White and O’Sullivan were left very impressed by his display.

“He’s the instinctive player here out of the two, you know; Mark Allen is a bit more methodical,” O’Sullivan said in the Eurosport studio.

“He plays like that pretty much all the time. Last night against Trump, same thing, just plays the balls, plays the table. And yeah, he’s just been too strong tonight.”

White added: “He just loves potting balls. He doesn’t care how he gets to the end of the frame. He’s just instinctive, gets down, sees a pot.

“It’s very difficult for him to refuse a pot because he gets so many difficult ones. He’s very adventurous, likes to pot balls and he can pot anywhere.”

However, it was a very different story for the player of the season, Allen, who endured a rare off night.

“He’s just not firing at the moment,” said O’Sullivan. “I think Luca has got in early, scored some points, put a bit of pressure on Mark.

“Mark feels like he’s got to play well. He wants to win the frame in one visit, and instead of playing on his instinct and just playing the balls, he’s thinking of the importance of it.

“Mark hasn’t really found his rhythm. But he hasn’t really been given much table time. Every time he’s missed, done something, Luca has gone in and killed the game off.”

O’Sullivan was asked if the wheels had finally come off for Allen, but O’Sullivan responded: “No, not at all. You can’t win every tournament, you can’t play well in every match.

“When you play that amount of games, every now and then you’re going to come up against a top player, playing really well, you might just be a little bit off. That’s how it is. You can’t control everything all the time.

“Mark didn’t play bad tonight, he just wasn’t given the chance, really. You have to give Luca the credit there, you know. He came out and played aggressive, made fantastic pots.”

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