Mark Allen v Chris Wakelin live stream | World Snooker Championship 2025 preview
Allen targets his fifth Crucible quarter-final (Ryan Crockett/Every Second Media Credit: Every Second Media/Alamy Live News)
Mark Allen looks to continue his dominant record over Chris Wakelin when the pair clash in the World Snooker Championship second round at The Crucible.
The first match in last 16 of this year’s tournament gets under way on Thursday, and pits the two-time semi-finalist against the player fresh from claiming his maiden victory at snooker’s blue-riband event.
It is a fixture that has been dominated by Allen, with five wins from six meetings – including a narrow 4-3 victory in their most recent encounter at this stage of the British Open last September.
The Pistol arrived at The Crucible on a four-match losing streak – including three first-round exits – and the early signs were not promising when he fell 3-0 behind against Fan Zhengyi.
Nevertheless, Allen recovered to prevail 10-6, with two centuries on the way to reaching the second round for the fourth time in five appearances.
He now targets a sixth Crucible quarter-final, but will be wary having fallen at this hurdle on three of the last four occasions. That includes 12 months ago, when he could only watch in awe as John Higgins produced a sensational 71 clearance from 62-0 down to snatch a dramatic 13-12 victory from under his nose.
Meanwhile, Wakelin finds himself in uncharted territory for what is his latest career milestone, having climbed into the top 16 earlier this season and made his Masters debut.
The world number 20’s form has tailed off in recent times, with four first-round exits in his last five events.
Nevertheless, he breezed through the World Championship qualifying rounds – dropping just seven frames on the way to securing a fourth Crucible appearance – and built on that momentum by racing into a 7-2 lead against Neil Robertson in the opening round.
Wakelin had to maintain his composure when the 2010 World champion recovered to level at 7-7, but did so to eventually get himself over the line.
This season’s International Championship runner-up had lost six of his seven previous showdowns with Robertson. That experience of overturning an inferior head-to-head record will stand him in good stead against Allen, as he seeks a fifth quarter-final appearance of the campaign.
A Chinese qualifier awaits the winner of this best-of-25 clash in the last eight in either Lei Peifan and Zhao Xintong who, between them, defeated last year’s finalists Kyren Wilson and Jak Jones in the opening round.
The match breaks off at 1pm BST on Thursday with the opening eight frames, before playing to a conclusion across two sessions at 10am and 7pm on Friday at The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
How to watch Mark Allen v Chris Wakelin live stream
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