Mark Allen peeled off two century breaks to ease into the British Open third round, one day after complaining the table he had played on should be “burned”.
Allen won a final-frame shootout in his tournament opener against Gary Wilson before the Northern Irishman described conditions at the Centaur Arena in Cheltenham as “absolutely embarrassing”.
The world number three, who apologised to interviewer Rob Walker on X for his outburst, had few problems on Tuesday as he defeated the Republic of Ireland’s Aaron Hill 4-1, book-ending the win with ton-plus breaks.
Allen started the match with breaks of 102 and 56 before moving to the brink of victory by taking a scrappy third frame. After losing the fourth, a 101 break sealed victory for Allen.
Judd Trump saw off Wales’ Ryan Day 4-2 but the world number one was unable to claim the century break he needed to become just the third player in history to reach 1,000 in his career.
Trump moved to 999 centuries on Monday but a last-frame 80 was the closest he came to joining Ronnie O’Sullivan, who achieved the mark in 2019, and John Higgins, who did so at the English Open last week.
Neil Robertson continued his good recent form with a 4-1 win over Chris Totten, courtesy of breaks of 100, 99, 86 and 53.
The Australian, who claimed his first ranking title since the 2022 Tour Championship at the English Open on Sunday, said on World Snooker’s website: “A victory after a tough time is always far sweeter.
“When you are winning regularly you can take it for granted. This one was really special. My wife and kids have seen me struggling over the last years because they were used to me winning before.”