John Higgins and Mark Allen are deadlocked at 4-4 after the first session of their first-round match at the 2024 Tour Championship in Manchester. Both players showed moments of quality as they battled for the upper hand in the best-of-19 frame clash. The winner will set up a quarter-final showdown with Ding Junhui. Allen took the first frame with a break of 69, but Higgins responded with breaks of 85 and 75 to take the lead. After a scrappy fourth frame, Higgins led 3-1 at the interval, maintaining his momentum after the break. Despite Allen’s struggles with fluency, he managed to pot his way out of a tough situation to make his 40th century of the season and narrow the gap to 4-2.
Allen capitalized on the shift in momentum, winning a lengthy 56-minute frame to further close the gap with Higgins before leveling the score by taking the final frame of the session. Meanwhile, on another table, Gary Wilson dominated with breaks of 95, 98, 78, and 101, opening up a 5-3 lead over Mark Selby, the four-time world champion. Wilson’s strong performance put him in a strong position to secure a spot in the quarter-finals and face Zhang Anda. Selby had a good start, winning two of the first three frames, including one with a break of 85, to lead 2-1. However, Wilson fought back, leveling the score with a break of 95 and then winning four frames in a row to take control of the match.
Wilson’s crucial victory in a scrappy fifth frame after the interval pushed him ahead 3-2 before breaks of 78 and 101 extended his lead. Selby missed an opportunity to narrow the gap to just two frames, but Wilson took advantage of the situation. On Monday evening, Higgins and Allen are set to play to a finish, while Tom Ford and Mark Williams will begin the first session of their match. Fans can watch top snooker action, including the World Snooker Championship, live on discovery+, the Eurosport app, and eurosport.com.
