Ronnie O’Sullivan says there is ‘a target’ on Mark Allen’s back after UK Championship win against Ding Junhui

Mark Allen roared back from 6-1 down to beat Ding Junhui 10-7 and win the UK Championship at the third time of asking during a tense final at the York Barbican.

It now means that Allen has won the Northern Ireland Open and UK Championship and also finished runner-up at the British Open in an impressive run of form.

The 36-year-old is top of the one-year list by a considerable distance and seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan said that there is now a target on Allen’s back.

“It will give him great confidence,” began O’Sullivan on Eurosport.

“He has started to win tournaments while not playing great, so naturally there will be a bit of a target on his back now. The [other players] will be revved up to play him.

“A lot of players will be sitting down thinking, ‘I want to get into him’, so it’s going to be different now.

“All dynamics change when you start winning a lot, and that is why he said, ‘I have got to get back to the practice table’ because I know it’s a bit of a ruthless thing, but it’s history.

“It’s all about the next one and the next one, and if you want to keep winning, improving yourself, you have to kind of put what’s happened there in the past and move on to the next one.

“That is what Stephen Hendry did; that is what Steve Davis did.”

However, Allen returned a player transformed after the interval, reeling off frame after frame to win an eighth ranking tournament of his career – and his second this year.

Allen’s reward for becoming the 13th player to win back-to-back ranking titles is a winner’s cheque for £250,000, while Ding’s loss sees Yan Bingtao confirmed as the final player in the 2023 Masters draw.

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