Mark Allen collects Ruhr Open title in Germany

Antrim's Mark Allen won his first title of the season by beating Ding Junhui of China 4-1 in the final of the Ruhr Open in Germany.

The 27-year-old collected a 25,000 Euro top prize for winning the fifth European Tour event of the season.

Left-hander Allen won seven matches during the event to land his first title since he won the Haikou Open seven months ago.

"The way my form has been, it's a big achievement to win here," said Allen.

"A lot of it is down to Terry Griffiths, we did some work last week and he made a change on the technical side and helped me to be more positive. I need to keep putting the work in with him and hopefully it will pay dividends.

"I was able to have a couple of hours rest after my semi-final whereas Ding had a long match, so maybe he was not as fresh as me for the final, though I'm sure he was just as motivated."

He took the opening frame of the final with a break of 76. Ding looked set to level until he missed a red to a centre pocket on 55, and his opponent battled his way back into the frame and took it on the colours.

A superb run of 100 put Allen 3-0 ahead, before Ding pulled one back with runs of 40 and 32. But there was to be no fight back as Allen's 74 in frame five saw him over the winning line.