? Northern Irishman yet to win major title
? Will play Peter Ebdon or Marco Fu in last four
Mark Allen took a significant step towards his first major title by beating Neil Robertson, the world champion, 6-4 to earn a place in tomorrow afternoon's semi-finals of the Masters. He is the first Northern Irishman to reach such an advanced stage since Dennis Taylor became the Masters champion in 1987.
Allen and Robertson belong to a group who Barry Hearn, the World Snooker chairman, had in mind when he said: "The public needs to be educated about a new generation of great players. The game can't be reliant on one or two players for public appeal. It has been because no one else has had much attention."
Both men were a notch below their best here but a stirring contest nevertheless ensued. The feisty Allen was sharply away to 2-0 with breaks of 63 and 69 and he also led 30-0 in the third frame. However, he did not score again until he was 3-2 down.
Robertson also led 4-3 after a trademark long red had set up a frame-winning 71 but he was to have no further success. Allen put together breaks of 57 and 75 to put himself 5-4 up and a further 69 took him to within one ball of victory. That was achieved after a brief tactical exchange.
Robertson said: "It was really close and credit to Mark. He stuck in there and didn't miss an awful lot of any significance. Every time he got a clear chance he scored heavily and produced a top standard."
Robertson's chief regret was over an incident that occurred when he was 3-2 up. "Mark missed and left two reds over pockets but he left me snookered and I couldn't see either of them," he said.
Allen, who has appeared in five major semi-finals, said that he was "sure that sooner or later I'll win one. You're never sure how you're going to deal with something until you've experienced it but if I can beat Ronnie [O'Sullivan] and Neil there's no need to be worried. I've got no one to fear but I've still got to perform."
He will now need to perform against either Peter Ebdon or Marco Fu; Ding Junhui will meet a Masters debutant, Jamie Cope, in the other semi-final.
Robertson's day off after his 6-3 win had re-assigned Stephen Hendry from competing to commentating was spent at Ludlow magistrates court, where he was fined �935 and banned from driving for 28 days, for driving at 109 mph on the M42. A friend drove him back to Wembley so he could resume his Masters challenge.
Following catastrophic events in Australia, he has sent a donation to the Queensland Flood Appeal and volunteered his services for a fund-raising exhibition match.
Robertson's career began inauspiciously ("I lost to a girl in the final of the Australian Under-15," he says) but he then progressed so quickly that he was given a wild card to the world-ranking circuit when he was only 16. He was not ready. The humiliation of losing his first match 5-0 was compounded by hearing his opponent's friends marvelling at the easy draw he had been given. Relegated after one season, he returned in 2003 as world Under-21 champion, a title that has also been won by O'Sullivan and Allen.
Based in Cambridge, 12,000 miles from his Melbourne home, Robertson was driven by a consuming desire to improve and he edged his way up the rankings, winning the first of six ranking titles in 2006 and taking the world championship last spring.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jan/14/mark-allen-neil-robertson-masters
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