A beefed-up Barry Hawkins handed player-of-the-season Mark Allen a crushing knockout blow at the Masters on Tuesday.
World No5 Allen, 36, arrived at the Masters as the player of the season to date after winning the UK Championship and defending his home Northern Ireland Open title.
But a ruthless Hawkins, 43, a two-time Masters finalist including last year, hardly allowed Allen a sight of a red as he inflicted a whitewash 6-0 defeat at Alexandra Palace.
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And afterwards ‘The Hawk’, into the quarter-finals, admitted that he is fighting fit after putting himself through a brutal and punishing regime in the gym to extend his career.
Kent's Hawkins said: “I have got right into body-pump…at my age! And I am loving it, it makes me feel good and I am getting to the gym two or three times a week.
“There is a long way to go to get proper toned up but I will keep at it. It’s all weights and squats, and for all parts of your body. By the end of a session I am broken, just a wet mess.
“After the first one I couldn’t move for two days and you can’t overdo it or you can’t even practice. But I am more used to it now.
“And if I look after myself like other players including Ronnie are, there is no reason I can’t go on for a few more years and win another big title.
“The result flatters me a bit – and my safety won me the match really. I created chances that way and kept Mark under pressure and on the back foot.
“And I executed the shots well, didn’t do much wrong, and didn’t make many errors. I felt good out there, and it feels like my game is in good shape too.
“I know how good Mark is in and around the black, and I just did everything not to let him have those opportunities and today it seemed to work.
“For once I didn’t take much time off over Christmas, and practised bar a couple of days off. I knew this was coming up and this is not a place where you want to be underprepared.
Mark Allen heaps praise on Barry Hawkins in a brilliantly honest interview after being whitewashed at the Masters 🤝
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“It is a phenomenal, amazing atmosphere here and by winning you earn yourself another of those experiences. And at my stage of the career, you don’t know how many more there will be.”
Hawkins enjoyed a spectacular run to the showpiece 12 months ago, eventually going down 10-4 to Neil Robertson in the final.
Allen has now suffered five first-round exits in a row since he won the Masters in 2018, but was not too downcast for two reasons – underlying confidence in his base level of form, and the knowledge that there was very little he could have done to change Tuesday’s result.
He said: “I didn’t see a ball for a lot of that match. I had a couple of chances, but along with a match against John Higgins it was the best safety I have seen as a pro – phenomenal.
“So it’s hard to be too harsh on yourself when you haven’t played that badly, however disappointed you are. It’s not often I get whitewashed, that shows how well he played.
“I probably should have won the first frame but shot after shot I was coming to the table scratching my head.
“So sometimes you have to credit your opponent, in this case Barry, who froze me out. I got really bashed up and of course it looks bad on paper.”
Meanwhile Mark Williams shrugged off the challenges of David Gilbert and a rogue wasp in the eighth and final frame to set up a quarter-final clash to savour against Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Two-time Masters champion Williams, 47, whose last success came 20 years ago, ran out a 6-2 winner against Gilbert – who owed his late replacement spot to Yan Bingtao being suspended over a match-fixing probe.
World No7 Williams said: “I thought the wasp was going to sting my nuts at one point. It was a good game tonight though. It is unbelievable how I am still playing, and it is special to be playing here.
“It will be amazing against Ronnie, I will only have three people in the corner wanting me to win but I am playing well and I will be no pushover.”
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