Snooker star Mark Allen has revealed the grim, illness-stricken build-up to his first-round victory at the 2026 Masters, joking he thought he ‘might have needed to wear a nappy’ during his match at Alexandra Palace.
A Victory Forged in Adversity
The Northern Irishman, known as ‘The Pistol’, was laid low with a severe bout of food poisoning in the days before the prestigious tournament, seriously curtailing his practice. Despite feeling ‘very, very weak’ and spending much of the week in bed, Allen produced a resilient performance to defeat Welsh legend Mark Williams 6-2 on Monday afternoon.
‘I felt comfortable which is weird because I couldn’t prepare for this at all,’ Allen told TNT Sports after the match. ‘I was lying in bed all week with food poisoning. I just thought I’d go out and give it my best.’
He described the sudden onset of the illness: ‘Lying in bed one night, all of a sudden needed to go and throw up and that was me for about six hours and three days later just could hardly get out of bed.’ Allen added he was ‘glad I got over the line when I did’, admitting he wouldn’t have had much energy left if the match had been closer.
Williams Laments ‘Worst’ Performance
Even a drained Allen proved too strong for Mark Williams, who was far from his brilliant best. The 50-year-old Welshman was candid in his assessment, calling his display ‘pretty poor really’ and noting his highest break was just 35.
‘I’m going to get those performances more and more as my career goes on, I’ve just got to accept that,’ said Williams. He even revealed his son had outscored him in a junior competition at the weekend, expecting some friendly stick for it.
Taking to social media platform X after the match, Williams went further, stating: ‘I think that is probably the worst I ever played as a pro tbh.’
Allen Looks Ahead and Sends Well Wishes to O’Sullivan
The victory books Allen’s place in the Masters quarter-finals for an strong>11th time. The 39-year-old, however, is keeping his ambitions in check. ’11th quarter-final but I’ve only won it once so I need to try and sort that out,’ he remarked.
Allen also commented on the surprise withdrawal of Ronnie O’Sullivan from the tournament, which was announced on Friday and attributed to mental health reasons. ‘I was very surprised,’ said Allen, having practised with ‘The Rocket’ before the UK Championship. ‘I hope whatever’s gone on, he’s ok, because the game’s better with him in it.’
On a technical note, Allen confirmed he is now ‘back to the original cue’ after a brief experiment with new equipment, and is feeling happy with his setup.
Allen will now face either Judd Trump or Ding Junhui in the last eight. In the other Monday match, Zhao Xintong defeated Gary Wilson 6-2 to set up a quarter-final clash with John Higgins or Barry Hawkins.
