Tour Championship: Neil Roberston beats Mark Allen 10-6 to book final clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan
Neil Robertson, our pre-tournament tip to win the Tour Championship, will face Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final after beating Mark Allen 10-6 in the last four in Llandudno.
Having pulled off a miraculous comeback to defeat Mark Selby in the quarter-finals earlier in the week, Robertson continued his strong recent form to win the last four frames on the spin to power into the final.
Robertson recovered from 2-0 down to lead 5-3 after the opening session although it was actually Allen who settled the better in the early exchanges and having pinched a scrappy opening frame, the Northern Irishman extended his lead to 2-0 thanks to a break of 78.
Another scrappy frame followed in frame three but it was Robertson who came out on the right side this time to finally get a foothold in the game, before following up with a fabulous break of 106 in the fourth frame.
Robertson continued in the same vein after the mid-session interval, breaks of 101 and 61 helping him surge into a 4-2 lead before Allen looked set to close the gap when in first with a run of 55 in frame seven.
However, he wasn't able to kill the frame off and Robertson was again quick to pounce, a brilliant clearance of 69 enough for him to win another frame before Allen kept his hopes alive with a break of 77 in frame eight and reduce his arrears to 5-3.
Robertson extended his advantage to 6-3 before Allen took the next three frames with the aid of breaks of 82 and 103 to draw level.
Robertson, though, then recorded breaks of 106, 87 and 52 in a run of 303 points without reply to move within a frame of victory.
Allen squandered a great chance to stop the rot in the 16th frame as he looked set to clear and reduce his deficit, only to snooker himself on the last red after potting a simple blue, from which he failed to escape after a hastily-taken attempt.
Robertson took advantage to clear to the pink and seal his place in the best-of-25 frame final on Saturday and Sunday.
"I'm really excited to play Ronnie in a best-out-of-25, that doesn't happen too often apart from the World Championships," Robertson told ITV4.
"It's a fantastic test to see where I'm at going into Sheffield because the last final we played it didn't matter who was the opponent, you can't play any better than that. Hopefully, he drops down from that level and gives me a few more chances."
O'Sullivan beat Robertson 10-4 to win the Players Championship in Preston earlier this month, sealing the victory with his 1,000th century in the final frame.