Mark Allen v Yan Bingtao live stream | German Masters 2022 preview
Allen edged out Williams on Friday (Photo by George Wood/PA Images)
Mark Allen and Yan Bingtao do battle for a place in the German Masters final at the Tempodrom in Berlin on Saturday.
The former Masters champions collide in the second of the semi-finals for the right to face Zhao Xintong in Sunday’s showpiece.
Both players find themselves in unchartered territory, having never previously progressed beyond the last eight of this event.
Allen has already taken out two Chinese cueists this week – Lyu Haotian and Fan Zhengyi – to reach his maiden semi-final in Berlin.
The Northern Ireland Open champion also defeated good friend Shaun Murphy on Friday; recovering from 2-1 down by winning four of the next five frames, before reeling off five without reply against Fan.
The Pistol is certainly building momentum heading into the 29th ranking event semi-final of his career, with him prevailing in 13 of his previous 28 such matches.
He has won three of his four meetings with Yan, although the most recent of these came in the last 32 of the 2018 China Open.
The Tiger has demonstrated incredible fight and determination to reach his third semi-final of the season, having also progressed to this stage at the Northern Ireland Open and Champion of Champions.
After beating David Gilbert 5-3, Yan recovered from 4-2 down to claim his third straight victory of the campaign over world number one Mark Selby.
The 2019 Riga Masters champion then overturned a 61-0 deficit at 4-3 behind against Ryan Day in the quarter-finals, before prevailing in a deciding frame to remain on course to become the second Chinese winner of this tournament after Ding Junhui in 2014.
A showdown with Zhao awaits the winner of this semi-final encounter.
Play gets underway at 7pm GMT on Saturday with the match contested over the best of 11 frames at the Tempodrom in Berlin.