Mark Allen landed the English Open title on Sunday night but is not happy with the impact – or lack of it – that success will have on his world ranking.
The Pistol beat Zhou Yuelong 9-8 in Brentwood as the final reached a dramatic late night climax.
It was a dramatic event for Allen as that win over Zhou was his fifth straight win in a deciding frame, having downed Stuart Bingham and Ding Junhui 4-3, Elliot Slessor 5-4 and Jak Jones 6-5 in previous rounds.
The English Open is not one of the bigger events on the calendar, but carries a healthy top prize of £100,000, which Allen pocketed.
This pales in comparison to some other top prizes on the circuit, notably at the recent Saudi Arabia Masters, where Neil Robertson won £500,000 for his 10-9 victory over Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final.
The Saudi Arabia Masters is played over a different format to the English Open and the rest of the Home Nations events and Allen points out that he actually won one more match and only one less frame (33 to 32) in Brentwood than Robertson did in Jeddah.
With snooker’s world rankings based on prize money, he does not feel like one achievement outweighs the other to the tune of £400,000.
‘I’m assuming with coming here and winning one more match than Neil won in Saudi and one frame less than he won that I’ll be pretty close to him on the one year list now?’ Allen sarcastically told the Express.
‘I think that says all you need to know about the world rankings and how they work. I could win one frame less and one match more and be £400,000 behind. Something definitely needs to change in that regard.’
Robertson sits third in the world rankings, with Allen at seven, while the separate one-year ranking list has Robertson top and Allen in fourth.
The overall world rankings are based on performances over two years, while the one-year list is self explanatory and decides qualification for certain tournaments later in the season.
A different system based on points rather than prize money would give a different reflection on tournament success.
Allen may not be best pleased with the ranking system, but he took a significant confidence boost from winning in Brentwood and knows he can take down anyone.
‘My best snooker is more than capable than mixing it with the likes of Judd [Trump] and Kyren [Wilson] 100 per cent,’ said Allen. ‘They’re the two players who have regularly been winning tournaments in the past couple of years. The difference lately is the consistency hasn’t been there for me.
‘I fancy myself whenever it gets down to the one table, no matter who I’m playing against.’
World number one Trump is yet to lift a trophy yet this season but is feeling very good about his game after changing his cue for the first time since 2018.
The Ace started his British Open campaign on Monday with a superb 4-0 win over Aaron Hill and confidence is flowing.
‘I changed my cue before the last tournament [English Open] and played really well,’ he told ITV. ‘I ran up against Elliot Slessor and I didn’t do anything wrong, the tournament before Gary Wilson same thing, didn’t do anything wrong.
‘Apart from Saudi [Arabia Masters] I played poor, the rest of the season I’ve actually played good. I’m very happy with my game. It’s just the standard now, the odd shot here and there is the difference.
‘It feels a lot easier with the [new] cue to adjust to the tables, completely different cue, titanium ferrule, it couldn’t be any more different. I’ve played with the cue for two weeks and I think we’ve seen with Ronnie in the Worlds to change from titanium to brass is very difficult. I feel like when I strike the ball well this cue is a lot more consistent. My long potting maybe went off the boil the last two or three seasons, with this cue they just go in the centre of the pocket, so it’s a nice feeling.
‘I just didn’t have the belief anymore with that old cue. I’m able to time the ball now whereas before I was having to smack it and they were going off line a little bit, whereas this I can just trust my cue action.’
