Luca Brecel had two cues – but still couldn’t beat Mark Allen in The Masters.
Have you ever seen anything like it at a major snooker event? The Belgian Bullet – making his Alexandra Palace debut – decided to bring two cues into the arena and use one for safety shots and one for when he was in amongst the balls.
It seems like a strange approach and unsurprisingly didn’t pay off for him as he lost 6-3 to his Northern Ireland opponent who took the more orthodox one-cue approach to the match.
Whether shifting between two cues had any impact on the result is hard to say with any real certainty but the fact is that Brecel didn’t play anywhere near his best and the chopping and changing could hardly have helped.
Allen, on the other hand, was in good form making two centuries en route to victory and most impressively closed the match out efficiently racing to the winning post in double quick time after being tied at 3-3.
The world number eight spoke after the match about feeling full of confidence. Unlike in years gone by, he’s not let his hair down too much over the Christmas break opting to stay on the practice table and keep himself match sharp in the hope of progressing through to a first-ever Masters final or better still landing his first Triple Crown title.
The Antrim man has been one of the consistent performers so far this season despite not landing any silverware and it feels as though it might only be a matter of time until he’s picking up a winner’s cheque. And oh how he’d love it come here.
Allen is among a small group of players considered to be one of the best players not to have won one of the big three events despite seemingly having all the attributes in his game.
He knows doing it this week will be a big ask with the tournament favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan his likely next opponent. Allen has never been the kind of player to fear anyone though and has experience of beating The Rocket on the big stage before both at this event back in 2011 and most famously at The Crucible in 2009.
Allen has never been one to lack bottle and is the first to admit that he loves the thrill of competing on the highest stage, so could provide a difficult test for O’Sullivan were he to get past Marco Fu tomorrow.
