2024 Shanghai Masters: Pang Junxu overcomes Mark Allen in gripping clash to set up Mark Selby quarter-final showdown
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Updated 17/07/2024 at 18:17 GMT+1
Mark Allen fell to a 6-5 defeat to Pang Junxu in a tightly-contested second-round clash. Pang held a 5-4 lead going into the interval of a match that lasted over nine hours across two sessions. A costly miss on the blue was Allen's downfall eventually, allowing Pang to win and set up a clash with Mark Selby, who swept aside Cao Jin in seven frames.
'Wow!' - Allen misses costly blue as Pang steals victory to advance
Video credit: TNT Sports
Pang Junxu set up a quarter-final clash with Mark Selby after he defeated Mark Allen in a gripping 6-5 win that lasted nine hours and spanned two sessions.
Pang had held a 5-4 lead at the interval, having raced clear to a 3-0 lead before the evening session commenced.
In the end, it was a costly miss on the blue that saw Pang wrap up the win in an engrossing back-and-forth battle.
Pang set his stall out early on with an impressive break of 32, capitalising on some sloppy early play from Allen.
He doubled his lead after a keenly contested second frame in a frame which could have easily gone Allen's favour after the Northern Irishman missed a blue from distance.
The world No. 1 needed a response, and he duly delivered to reduce the arrears with a much-needed clearance of 61.
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'It's what the best players do' - Allen hits 120 to recover from three frames down to tie match
Video credit: TNT Sports
Pang was left to rue what might have been after twice missing the red off-the-top cushion from a snooker, and Selby was up and running.
It would get even better for him with a break of 40 after potting the black to punish Pang for several missed chances earlier in the frame.
Momentum had firmly shifted in Allen’s favour, and he wiped out Pang’s lead in emphatic fashion with a scintillating clearance of 120.
Pang would restore his lead though with a delightful snooker to leave the cue ball behind the green, and would move onto a break of 80 after Allen left a red for the Chinese player to dispatch.
But this absorbing match swung back in Allen's favour after Pang left a blue over the left centre pocket.
After following that up with the pink the scores were level again at 4-4, before Pang moved into a 5-4 lead with a clearance of 70.
The evening session saw Allen hit a break of 101 to level it at five frames apiece, but a miss on the blue proved decisive for Northern Ireland’s Allen as Pang wrapped up the win to progress into the quarter-finals against Selby.
Selby cruises past Cao
There were no such problems for Selby, who cruised into the last eight with a rampant 6-1 win over Cao Jin.
It looked like it could have been a very different story when Cao seized the first frame, but Selby kicked into gear from that point onwards.
He would level the scores before turning the match on its head in the third frame with an excellent 115 clearance to take a 2-1 lead.
Further impressive breaks of 76 and 65 in the fifth and seventh frames respectively, sealed a resounding win for the world No. 6.
WORLD CHAMPION WILSON WHITEWASHED
World Champion Kyren Wilson had a terrible game in his first match as world champion, losing 6-0 to Zhou Yuelong in the Shanghai Masters.
Zhou had breaks of 78, 59, and 83 and while not completely dominating in his performance, Wilson could not get a single frame on the board and crashed out of the tournament in his first outing.
Zhou had already faced Barry Hawkins in a tough match in his opener, and now clashes with Shaun Murphy in the quarter-finals.
Elsewhere, Murphy, who now faces Zhou, beat John Higgins 6-3 to clinch his quarter-final place.
Murphy hit breaks of 62, 55, 56, 93, 83, and 64 while Higgins broke for 60, 79, and 52.
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