Scottish Open: Allen suffers agonising semi-final defeat to Lei Peifan
Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen suffered a tragic defeat in the Scottish Open semi-finals. Repeifan staged a wonderful comeback from 2-5 behind to win 6-5.
Breaks of 73 and 97 helped Allen take a 3-0 lead in Edinburgh, but the 21-year-old Chinese player won the next two games to narrow the gap to one.
The world number five looked on the verge of victory when winning games six and seven, but missing out on pink in the following games proved crucial as his tenacious opponent, ranked 84 position, fought back hard, and won four games in a row in a war of attrition. competition.
Lei Peifan has never reached the quarter-finals of a ranking event before and has lost his Tour card twice in his career, but now finds himself facing compatriot Wu Yize in Sunday’s final.
In the other semi-final match of the day, Wu Yize defeated another Chinese player Xiao Guodong 6-4 after falling behind 4-2, locking his place in the decider.
The 21-year-old will play in his second career ranking final after losing 9-7 to Neil Robertson in the British Open decider in September.
The comeback win for the world number 27 included a break of 115 in the ninth to take the lead for the first time in the match.
The two young Chinese players will compete in a best-of-17 final on Sunday, with the winner receiving a £100,000 prize and the Stephen Hendry Trophy.
However, for Allen, he missed a great opportunity to win a 12th ranking event title and a second Scottish Open title, having previously won the event in 2018.
The Antrim man has been in prolific goal-scoring form all week at the Meadowbank Sports Center and has scored consecutive centuries on his way to the last four.
