Mark Allen reckons Wu Yize will ‘100 per cent fancy the job’ against Shaun Murphy in the World Snooker Championship final and is not sure the Magician has the tactical nous to handle the youngster.
The 22-year-old beat Allen 17-16 in a classic Crucible semi-final on Saturday night, a match which will go down as one of the most dramatic in the tournament’s history.
The Northern Irishman looked set to reach a first World Championship final but spurned chances in each of the final three frames, most notably missing a straightforward final black in the penultimate frame.
Allen was incredibly gracious in defeat, accepting that he could have no complaints and offering great praise to Wu, who has also beaten Lei Peifan, Mark Selby and Hossein Vafaei on his run to the final.
Asked if the first-time finalist’s has a good chance against a five-time finalist in Murphy, Allen said: ‘100 per cent, he’d fancy the job, absolutely no doubt.
‘I think that’ll be an open final and I think that suit’s Wu Yize, to be honest. I think the way he could probably get at Wu Yize is tactically. I think that’s where I was probably hanging in the match because of that. I’m not really sure Shaun has that.
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‘But Shaun’s more than capable of going out there and absolutely blitzing Wu Yize, don’t get me wrong, but if he plays like he did against me over those four sessions he’s going to be hard to stop.’
Wu has shown more to his game than just all-out attack, earning praise from Selby for his safety game after their second round clash, but his incredible potting ability remains his major strength.
‘It’s funny because he just keeps potting balls. A lot of the times I thought I was breaking off reasonably well and then I happened to hear ref call out 130 or 140,’ said Allen. ‘It’s a little bit demoralising at times.
‘But I still had more than enough chances. You can say about how good his long potting is and how heavy he scores, but ultimately I was 16-14 up and should have won. You still get chances. He still misses balls like anyone else, we’re all human, but he’s an unbelievable talent, don’t get me wrong.
‘Maturity beyond his years really at 22 to clear up the way he did, particularly at 16-14 because there’s a lot of top players that wouldn’t have cleared up there, definitely not. I felt like I put him under a lot of pressure over the four sessions and he always seemed to have an answer.
‘He always found an answer whether it was tough pots to win a frame at the end or just big breaks and a barrage of big breaks after long reds.
‘I think it’s going to be an exciting final that’s for sure, I’m not sure there will be too much safety involved but I think, even if he doesn’t win it this time, I think he’s going to win multiple world titles.
‘I’m not Ronnie [O’Sullivan], I don’t say that too quickly about too many people but there’s just something about him. Nothing seems to really faze him. He looks so comfortable out there, so calm and I think that’s a testament to him and his technique and he just trusts his ability and just keeps going.’
The drama at the end of the match will live longest in the memory, but the contest also featured an extraordinary 100-minute frame, the longest in Crucible history.
The 14th frame saw the black cover a corner pocket and both players nudge reds ever closer to it, causing a stalemate, which Allen eventually broke by potting the black.
He only did so as he held a 30-point lead and was under threat of a re-rack unless the stalemate was resolved.
Referee Marcel Eckhart told the players they had three shots to sort the situation out or it would be a re-rack, which Allen says could have been done much earlier.
‘Definitely not digging Marcel out because I think he’s probably our best ref and I said that to him after the session finished,’ said Allen. ‘I think he could have handled it better.
‘I think he could have definitely called time a bit earlier and given us a chance to sort it out earlier or take the re-rack and get on with another frame.
‘The reason I was sort of being stubborn with it is because we’d played for an hour before he called it and I was like, I’ve invested so much into this.
‘I felt like I was always being the aggressor in that safety, trying to force a mistake from Wu and he was just dropping into the reds and I don’t really know what Marcel expected me to do.
‘I was definitely the one being the aggressor, trying to force that mistake from Wu, trying to get him a snooker up the top of the table so he would knock the black in.’
Allen was not really moaning about the situation, just giving his take on it, and laughed that he was happy to take a piece of Crucible history, previously held by Mark Selby and Yan Bingtao.
Meanwhile he was happy to wind up Stephen Hendry, who criticised him for a negative style of play earlier in the tournament.
‘I’m just happy to get another record to be honest. [Mark] Selby texted me last night saying he doesn’t have many records left,’ said Allen. ‘So happy to steal that one off him and keep [Stephen] Hendry off my Christmas card list.’
On his perceived negativity at times, Allen said: ‘I think there’s a massive narrative about me and how I play the game which is extremely unfair, I think.
‘There’s not a player out there that tries harder than me and I get a really bad rep for some slow frames and shot choices. But I’m just playing as tough as I can play. I’ll always apply myself, always try my hardest.
‘I think I made nine centuries in this tournament. I made 145. Two 140s. There’s a lot of good stuff in there that people are very quick to overlook.’