Earlier in the tournament, Allen had narrowly won a final-frame decider against Gary Wilson, describing the conditions at Cheltenham’s Centaur Arena as “absolutely embarrassing” and insisting “the table needs to be burned.” He later apologized for the comments on X (formerly Twitter) to interviewer Rob Walker.


The world number three comfortably defeated Aaron Hill of the Republic of Ireland 4-1 in his next match, setting up his encounter with Mertens. Allen took the first frame and achieved the fourth maximum break of his career in the second, highlighted by an impressive double on the 10th red. He eventually secured a 4-1 victory with a 77 break.

If no other player matches Allen’s 147 in Cheltenham, he will claim the £5,000 high-break prize. In the late evening session, Allen returned to the table and overcame Chris Wakelin 4-3, setting up a quarter-final showdown with world number one Judd Trump.