Mark Allen is unfazed by criticism from Stephen Hendry, accusing the seven-time world champion of ‘talking rubbish’ in the commentary box.
Allen is into the World Snooker Championship quarter-finals after a hard fought 13-9 win over Kyren Wilson at the Crucible.
It was a good display of scrapping from the Pistol, who is not at peak form, by his own admission, but has secured impressive back-to-back wins over Zhang Anda and now the 2024 champion.
The Northern Irishman won the first five frames of the match, but then lost the next six, which is when Hendry hit out at how Allen was playing.
At 5-1 ahead Allen rejected a pink to middle and opted to play safe instead, infuriating the Scot who insisted no one can win the World Championship without showing more attacking intent.
‘Surely he must pot the pink in the left middle,’ Hendry said on the BBC. ‘I just don’t understand it, he’s 5-1 ahead. If this is the way top level snooker is played now I don’t understand it, I’m afraid. You have to play the pink, it’s the right shot.
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‘I’m trying to think of another player that would refuse that pink in this Championship and I’m struggling.
‘I don’t think, personally, you can win the World Championship playing this way, that’s my opinion.’
Allen was thrilled to be through to the last eight, but was in no mood to accept criticism over this style of play, suggesting it was Hendry’s own mindset that saw his dominance of snooker end after his seventh world title.
Hendry’s last Triple Crown success came at the 1999 World Championship when he was 30 years old.
‘Look, Stephen’s entitled to his opinion, but more often than not, he’s full of rubbish, to be honest,’ said Allen, who idolised Hendry growing up.
‘Not everyone can come here and make it look as easy as he did, but you’re also looking at someone that never won a Triple Crown event after they turned 30, so the game changes and maybe that stubbornness is what cost him the later part of his career.
‘There’s no question how good he was. He was my idol growing up. He’s one of the best that’s ever played the game, but we can’t all be to that standard.
‘But it’s very easy for him to sit in the commentary box and criticise. He’s no idea what I’m thinking when I’m out there and and I’ll never, ever apologise for trying my hardest on any given shot.’
Wilson saw where Hendry was coming from and felt Allen could have really rubbed his nose in the dirt after taking a 5-0 lead, but did not quite push on at that point.
‘Yeah, I don’t know if it’s a problem. Sometimes you have to play on how you feel out there at the time,’ said Wilson.
‘But yeah, I do agree with that [Allen went a bit too negative]. I do think at 5-0, he could sense I was really struggling with my tip. He’s used to me playing with quite a firm tip. I was playing with like, it felt like a fruit pastille!
‘So I dug in and I’m always going to go for my shots. If I’m 10-0 down, if I’m 10-0 up, I’m just going to go for my shots because I feel like it inspires me.
It can ignite a bit of confidence. And I feel like I get a buzz if the crowd are enjoying what I’m doing.
‘So, yeah, I do kind of agree with that statement. But then, like I said to Mark at the end, third session, he looked confident. He looked like he was gunning for it. He looked like he was flowing a bit more.
‘And I said to him, if you play like that, you’ve got a chance.’
Wilson was full of praise for Allen in defeat, saying: ‘He’s one of the lads that I always root for. You know, I’m in it to win it for myself, but if I’m not in it, he’s one of the guys that I root for.
‘I like his background, his family, his friends, his partner and him. I think he’s a great lad, down to earth, works hard. I think we’re in quite similar boats in our career. We try very hard, ee feel like we put our life and soul into the game and trying to get better. And we always have a bit of fun.’
Allen will now take on Barry Hawkins or Mark Williams in the quarter-finals, starting on Tuesday.