Backed by home crowd, Mark Allen ends Judd Trump's 25-match win streak

Mark Allen: Through to the semi-final in Belfast

Mark Allen has brought Judd Trump’s incredible winning run at the Northern Ireland Open to an end.

The 35-year-old from Antrim reached the semi-finals of his home tournament for the first time with a brilliant comeback 5-3 victory over the Juddernaut.

Trump, 32, will regain his world No1 position next week and had hoped to celebrate in style with a fourth title in a row after 25 consecutive wins.

But he missed frame-ball red to make it 4-0 came back to haunt Trump as Allen, roared on by passionate and partisan crowd in Belfast, took advantage of errors and some luck.

And he held his nerve to win the last five frames to the delight of his army of supporters at the Waterfront Arena.

Allen, who also made a 147 earlier in the week, said: “Any win against Judd is very good. I had to fight for every ball, I wasn’t quite at it – and was very fortunate at times.

“I got a bit of run here and there and it was definitely my day. But I am not resting on my laurels, I came here to win the tournament so that’s still two more wins.

“If Judd had potted that red to go 4-0 I’d have been at least odds of 50-1 to win if not a lot more. At 3-0 down I hadn’t done anything good.

“And frame five was also huge, 3-1 down and 60 behind before getting two huge slices of luck.

“So I won those two frames on the black – and then from that point I played okay, only making one more mistake that I wasn’t ultimately punished for.

“From 3-2, I could see he was making mistakes that he doesn’t usually make. I felt relaxed and hope I can take that into tomorrow.

“I think I haven’t done myself justice in Belfast before because I wasn’t playing for myself as usual, but for all my family and friends.

“But not coming in from home 20 minutes away but staying in the tournament hotel and treating it like other events has maybe helped.” Trump said: “I missed that ball to go 4-0 and a couple of others – but I didn’t do too much wrong. There were a couple of close frames where it just didn’t seem meant to be this year.

“The odd ball here and there was the difference between being 4-0 up or losing 5-3. Stuff was happening like out of a movie.

“I am disappointed that the run is over in this tournament. The first of the three wins gave my career a real kick-start, and I have played well here.

“With things that happened today and also in Mark’s previous match when he scraped through – plus his 147 – you just wonder if maybe it is going to be his week.”

Allen will now play Ricky Walden this afternoon after he came through a thriller 5-4 against Shaun Murphy.

Three-time ranking title winner Walden, 38, is into a first semi-final for more than five years after coming back from a crippling back injury that almost saw him quit the game.

World No29 Walden, who came back from 3-1 down, made breaks of 81, 98, 84, and 70 before and winning with a superb break of 91.

He said: “It feels very big for me to be back in the semi-finals. It was brutal with the back for two years and in a way, the last couple of years have felt like a bonus.

“I feel this has been coming, my game is in good shape. I know I am playing Mark on his home patch and the crowd will be with him, but I’ll give it my best shot.”