Following on from August’s moment of the month where we saw Mark Selby inflict one of his trademark comebacks, this time on Mark Allen from 3-0 down to win the Riga Open title 4-3, the pair met again and what it produced is quite simply my moment of the month for September by a mile.
It came in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, this
time over the best-of-11 frames (rather than their best-of-7 Riga Open final)
after Mark Selby overcame Ken Doherty, saw off a big scare against Michael Holt
before thrashing Fergal O’Brien to reach the last 4. Meanwhile, Mark Allen was
still showing his own fine form after making that Riga Open final and winning
the Paul Hunter Classic to beat Andrew Higginson, Mark Williams and see off a
valiant Michael White to make the semi-finals himself.
Once into the semi-finals it was one-way traffic in Mark
Selby’s favour in the early stages of the match. He won the opening frame
thanks to a break of 70 before a fine break of 116 doubled his lead putting him
2-0 up. A nice 52 from Allen in the third helped him onto the board at 1-2, but
Selby went into the mid-session break with his two frame cushion again with a
break of 47 his highest in the fourth frame. Mark Selby was handed a few
chances in the fifth as he went 4-1 ahead and was looking very comfortable
indeed. Allen soon had a frame back thanks to a break of 68, but a 71 in the
seventh from Selby put him just a frame from the Shanghai Masters final at 5-2.
A scrappy eighth frame where both players had chances could
well have been the turning point as Mark Allen tried to spark some sort of a
comeback in a style that his opponent has inflicted on many a player over the
years, and he won that frame to close to 3-5 and a quick fire break of 115
closed the gap to a single frame at 4-5 and (as Selby did to Allen in Riga)
switching the pressure back on to his opponent as Selby would’ve been desperate
to seal the match in frame ten. However, he didn’t get his wish and a fine
break of 64 from Mark Allen was the deciding factor in taking us to an eleventh
and deciding frame for a place in the final, so it’s fair to say the stakes were
high. After losing the last three frames in a row, Selby looked very good at
the start of the decider with a break of 63 building him a formidable lead. A
run of 40 from Allen got him back into it, as the frame eventually went down to
the colours. It was Selby that made the error though and Allen was able to
finish things off as a final 27 won him the frame and the match as he took all
of the last four frames of the match to produce an emphatic comeback and give
the master of brinkmanship a taste of his own medicine. It was nice to see
Allen get his revenge there and inflict a defeat on Selby that would’ve hurt
the World Champion as much as the Riga Open final loss would’ve hurt the
Northern Irishman.
We're on the home front now of my look back on the best snooker moments of 2014 and what I have for you tomorrow from October was a truly special moment so be sure to come back and have a read of that one.
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