The first Home Nations title of the season will be won on Sunday when the defending champion and home hero Mark Allen faces Zhou Yuelong for the Alex Higgins Trophy in the final of the Northern Ireland Open inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
Allen goes into the final looking to keep hold of his home title while Zhou will set out to get his hands on a first ranking event trophy so both men are playing for plenty which should hopefully see to a competitive final.
Mark Allen
I think it is fair to say that Mark Allen has been one of the players of the season so far. He will be competing in a second ranking event final in succession here having made it all the way to the concluding match in the British Open a few weeks ago. He went down as a heavy favourite on that occasion and he will be hoping that lightning doesn’t strike twice in this one. The good thing is that he has won this title before so he won’t get lost in the atmosphere or the occasion.
I also think it is fair to say that Allen hasn’t had his best stuff with him this week. He has grinded his way through, although there were one or two signs in the middle of the semi-final win over Neil Robertson that his best snooker was there and waiting to come out. He will hope he brings it out in this final and if he does then there is a good chance that he will not only win this title but also wrap up his spot at the Champion of Champions at the end of the month.
Zhou Yuelong
This will be the second big final that Zhou Yuelong will play in. He won’t need any reminding of the nightmare he had in the first one when he failed to take a single frame off Neil Robertson in a 9-0 defeat in the European Masters final a couple of years ago. That won’t have been a pleasant experience and will surely add fuel to his fire but it also shows that he will need to get a frame on the board early in this final to settle.
Zhou certainly can’t have any complaints about his form heading into this match. He displayed possibly his best ever performance in the semi-final when he put together four centuries in beating Anthony McGill 6-4. He now needs to ensure he brings that game with him to this final and if he does then he will be a serious challenger. It isn’t always easy to play well one day after having just done it though so we shouldn’t take that for granted.
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Head-to-head
These two men have met twice in the past with Zhou Yuelong winning the first meeting at the World Championship in 2019 before Mark Allen got some sort of revenge at the Scottish Open a couple of years ago when he won a deciding frame in one of the earlier rounds. This will be the first time the pair will have played in a final but it might be something to the Chinese player that he has won the only previous match that they have played over two sessions of play.
Betting
Anyone who has followed us all week will already be on Mark Allen to win this match at 14/1 as we took him to win the tournament before a ball was hit. I’m not planning on opposing him now. I think he’s a good thing in this final and if Zhou Yuelong doesn’t settle early doors then I would imagine Allen will win with plenty in hand. I’m happy to let the outright ride but there is one bet that I’ll go at in this final. It comes in the form of century breaks.
Finals don’t always live up to the billing that they get, especially these sorts of ones where one of the players is inexperienced in finals and the other just wants to win his home title really badly again. The final between Allen and John Higgins here 12 months ago went the distance and only had two centuries and Allen played a final against Ryan Day in the British Open three weeks ago in which there were two centuries in 17 frames. I get that between them they made six centuries in their semi-final wins but the dynamics are all different for a final. I’m not actually convinced this will be close so a 2.5 centuries line might be one too high.
Tips
Back Under 2.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with William Hill
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