Allen wins to join Zhao in Crucible second round

Halo World Championship

Venue: Crucible Theatre, Sheffield Dates: 19 April to 5 May

Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and app; live text coverage of selected matches; updates on BBC Radio 5 Live

Mark Allen beat China's Fan Zhengyi 10-6 to book his place in the second round of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre.

The 39-year-old from Northern Ireland, who had trailed 3-0 before fighting back to lead 5-4 overnight, made breaks of 88 and 102 on his way to setting up a last-16 tie with qualifier Chris Wakelin.

Allen, a former Masters and UK Championship winner, is bidding for a first world title to complete the full set of Triple Crown event victories.

The world number eight told BBC Two: "It was a bit of a shaky start yesterday and I thought Fan was very good at the start. I was really happy to be 5-4 in front overnight and I played some really good snooker today.

"I stole two frames in a row that I had no real right to win and it made the scoreline look a little flattering at the interval - 9-4 could have easily been 7-6 and then it would have been game on.

"I didn't close it out as clinically as I would have liked but I finished off nicely."

Allen is joined in round two by Zhao Xintong, who wrapped up a comfortable 10-4 victory over 2024 runner-up Jak Jones.

Jones' exit means both of last year's finalists have exited the 2025 event in the first round, following defending champion Kyren Wilson's defeat by Lei Peifan on Saturday.

Zhao will meet fellow Chinese player Lei for a place in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, four-time champion John Higgins trails Joe O'Connor 5-4 in a first-round match that will be played to a conclusion from 19:00 BST.

English qualifier O'Connor got 12 reds and 12 blacks into a maximum attempt in frame seven, but landed awkwardly on the 13th red and had to settle for a break of 96.

In Monday afternoon's other first-round contest, three-time UK champion Ding Junhui opened up a 6-3 advantage against world number 73 Zak Surety.

Debutant Surety struggled to settled early on and was 4-0 down before he found any rhythm at all.

However, the Englishman regrouped after the mid-session pause and made a century break as he took three of the remaining five frames to limit the damage prior to Tuesday afternoon's concluding session.

Two former Crucible semi-finalists, Si Jiahui and David Gilbert, start their first-round match on Monday evening.

Zhao's first-round display was one of the most impressive of any player during the tournament so far.

The 28-year-old led 7-2 overnight and, after Jones took the first two frames of the morning, Zhao won the next three with breaks of 70, 55 and 87 to defeat the 16th seed from Wales.

Zhao is competing as an amateur in his first World Championship appearance since 2022, having completed a 20-month suspension earlier this season.

The former UK Championship winner was one of 10 players banned in 2023 following an investigation into match-fixing. He did not directly throw a match, but accepted charges of being a party to another player fixing two matches, and betting on matches himself.

Zhao has earned a place back among the professional ranks next season courtesy of his performances on the Q Tour and is considered one of the contenders to win in Sheffield, with Jones and former world champion Neil Robertson among those expecting him to make a deep run.

"I'm so happy he said that and I will try my best," said Zhao when told of Robertson's comments.

On being one of 10 Chinese players in the main draw at the Crucible, he added: "It's very helpful for Chinese snooker and we as players are very happy about that.

"Hopefully in the future, we will have a Chinese world champion here and we are trying to do that."

Jones, 31, said: "Zhao looked really sharp, the qualifiers have done him good, and I've had two best-of-sevens in the past 10 weeks or so.

"I kind of felt that out there, I didn't feel sharp at all. He put me under a lot of pressure, his scoring and long-potting was good and I think he'll be hard to stop."

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