World Snooker Championship: Allen happy with Crucible win

Mark Allen is aiming to win the World Championship for the first time

Mark Allen was delighted with the way he recovered from a slow start to win 10-3 against debutant Mitchell Mann in the World Championship first round.

The Northern Irishman trailed 2-1 after a nerveless opening by Mann.

But Allen took full advantage of an out-of-sorts opponent, winning nine of the next ten frames to set up a clash with either Joe Perry or Kyren Wilson.

"The turning point was when he missed a black off the spot in frame four," said world number seven Allen.

He added: "He was on 30-odd and that sort of changed it.

"I managed to win the frame from there with a 60-odd break. I played well after the interval and put him under lots of pressure."

Comfortable progress

Allen, 30, had dominated the opening session on Tuesday after a slow start, winning five frames in a row and scoring one ton and four other breaks of more than 50.

And he remained in full control against 24-year-old Mann on the resumption.

"For a debutant here it's bound to be hard whenever you're put under pressure by one of the established names," Allen said. "That's the way it turned out.

"He missed a few in the second session, he didn't play his best. I'm very happy to get through a comfortable winner."

Allen has not progressed beyond the second round in his last five visits to the Crucible.

But the three-time ranking event winner reached the semi-finals in 2009 and feels he is in good form and is due a good run in snooker's showpiece event.

Bring it on

"I handled myself pretty well the whole way through," Allen added. "I was in a good place mentally. It was just a matter of getting over the line.

"Winning 10-3 looks like it was comfortable but it wasn't that sort of match. Mitchell's style of play doesn't lend itself to free-flowing, open snooker so even though it was 10-3 it probably took a bit more out of me than a 10-3 should.

"I'll just look forward to round two. I know my game's in good shape, so bring it on.

Allen starts his second round match against either Wilson or Perry on Sunday morning, with the second session in the evening and the match playing to a conclusion on Monday afternoon.

"Obviously Joe's got a lot of experience here so he'll be favourite but it'd be no shock if Kyren was to get through that either, off the back of his first ranking-event win this year.

"But if I just control myself the way I have been the last few months my game's in good enough shape to not worry about them."