Mark Allen emerged as the 2025 English Open champion with a gruelling 9-8 defeat of Zhou Yuelong in Brentwood.
The Northern Irishman captured his 12th career ranking title in the early hours of Monday morning after another marathon match.
It was the fifth game in succession in the tournament whereby Allen managed to prevail in a deciding frame.
On most of those occasions, he had to scramble his way back from behind – most notably against Ding Junhui and Elliot Slessor in the last 16 and quarter-finals respectively.
In Sunday’s English Open final, Allen initially defied fatigue to establish a 6-2 cushion at the end of the first session.
When the scoreline later became 7-3, it seemed likely that he was going to etch his name onto the Steve Davis Trophy.
But Zhou, who was appearing in his fourth ranking final while hoping to avenge his defeat to Allen in the final of the 2022 Northern Ireland Open, launched a stirring comeback.
The 27 year-old reeled off five frames on the spin to move 8-7 in front and come within the brink of a maiden ranking success.
Allen, though, dug deep as he had done on countless occasions in the competition already.
A very timely break of 71 ultimately helped him to stop the rot and take the game to the 17th frame, which he duly won with a run of 61.
“It means a lot,” Mark Allen, who pockets the £100,000 champion’s cheque, told the World Snooker Tour.
“To win any tournament these days is good, but to do it the way I done it this week with not my best stuff and coming from behind a lot [means a lot].”
“I like to give value for money, that’s the one thing I would say. I’d like to find a bit of form.
“I felt good in the first session and 6-2 was probably deserved. I just didn’t close it out the way I would have liked.
“But then at 8-7, I felt like I switched back on again. I felt really good in those last two frames, which is a good sign for going forward.
“I just need to keep doing what I’m doing on the practice table, because I feel like I’ve been trending in the right direction for a while.
“I lost a close match in Saudi and then got to the semis in China, and then obviously I’ve won here.
“So it’s been a steady start to the year, and I just need to keep it going now.
“I was absolutely shattered all day. I think adrenaline got me through that first session, and then to be honest I was really tired tonight.
“It’s no excuse for some of the balls that I missed, but yeah I was feeling it. But it was weird, because at 8-7 I suddenly felt like I had a bit more adrenaline.
“[I thought] this is it, this is you chance, and this is the time that you need to find your form.
“I think the least you can ask for from any player is application. It sounds so simple, but so many guys would have just given up in certain positions that I was in this week.
“I think other people know now that I’m not going to give up, and I’m never beat. That’s sort of worth a frame in itself sometimes.
“I’m happy to win ugly. There was some decent stuff in there, but there’s plenty more to come.”
Victory for Mark Allen safeguards his spot in the upcoming Champion of Champions.
He may already have received an invitation through his triumph at the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship, but his participation at the prestigious invitational is now set in stone.
Allen has also alleviated some ranking concerns as he had provisionally been in danger of missing out on automatic qualification for the World Championship at the end of the campaign.
It wasn’t his prettiest glory, but the 39 year-old once again underlined his tenacity at finding a way to win at any cost.
2025 English Open Draw
Round of 32 (bo7)
Neil Robertson 1-4 Jackson Page
Shaun Murphy 4-1 Fan Zhengyi
Wu Yize 4-2 Chris Wakelin
Lei Peifan 0-4 Mark Selby
Mark Williams 1-4 Zhou Yuelong
Barry Hawkins 4-0 Tom Ford
Luca Brecel 4-2 Si Jiahui
Pang Junxu 0-4 Robbie Williams
Judd Trump 4-1 Yuan Sijun
Gary Wilson 0-4 Elliot Slessor
Stuart Bingham 3-4 Mark Allen
Matthew Selt 1-4 Ding Junhui
Xiao Guodong 3-4 Ricky Walden
Zhang Anda 1-4 Jak Jones
Aaron Hill 4-3 Ali Carter
Jack Lisowski 4-1 Zhao Xintong
Round of 16 (bo7)
Jackson Page 4-3 Shaun Murphy
Wu Yize 2-4 Mark Selby
Zhou Yuelong 4-2 Barry Hawkins
Luca Brecel 4-3 Robbie Williams
Judd Trump 3-4 Elliot Slessor
Mark Allen 4-3 Ding Junhui
Ricky Walden 3-4 Jak Jones
Aaron Hill 4-1 Jack Lisowski
Quarter-Finals (bo9)
Jackson Page 4-5 Mark Selby
Zhou Yuelong 5-4 Luca Brecel
Elliot Slessor 4-5 Mark Allen
Jak Jones 5-2 Aaron Hill
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Mark Selby 3-6 Zhou Yuelong
Mark Allen 6-5 Jak Jones
Final (bo17)
Zhou Yuelong 8-9 Mark Allen
Featured photo credit: WST
