Three matches in, three former champions out.
Mark Allen walked into Alexandra Palace on Monday afternoon trailing a match that looked like it might slip away from him — and left it having won five consecutive frames to knock out Mark Williams 6-2 in the last sixteen of the 2026 Masters.
The opening exchanges were tight. Allen, 39, got the first frame on the board with a break of 67, but Williams — who at 50 remains one of the most durable competitors the sport has produced — steadied himself and took the next two frames to move ahead 2-1. For a spell, it looked like the Welshman's experience might carry him through.
Then Allen found another gear. A break of 54 in the fourth frame levelled things at 2-2 heading into the mid-session interval, and when play resumed, he was a different player. Breaks of 60, 125, and 70 followed in succession, each one tightening his grip on the match until Williams had nowhere left to go.
Williams, for his part, never quite found his rhythm after that early lead. Errors accumulated, his potting became unreliable, and he finished the afternoon without a single break reaching 50 — a telling statistic for a player of his calibre. His pot success rate across the match sat at just 71%, well below what he would need to trouble an opponent in full flow.
The result carries a broader significance beyond the two men involved. Williams was the third former world champion to exit the tournament in its first three matches. On Sunday, Shaun Murphy fell to Wu Yize, and Mark Selby was beaten by Xiao Guodong. Three matches in, three former champions out — a pattern that says something about the shifting balance of power in the game.
Allen now advances to the quarter-finals on Thursday, where he will face the winner of Wednesday's match between world number one Judd Trump and China's Ding Junhui. Either way, it will be a formidable test. But on this evidence, Allen is playing with the kind of momentum that makes him dangerous.
Notable Quotes
His pot success rate of only 71% and no break reaching 50 told the story of a frustrating afternoon.— Match statistics, 2026 Masters
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Allen was losing when this turned. What actually changed?
He steadied at the interval. Going into the break at 2-2 rather than 1-3 gave him something to build on, and then his break-building just clicked.
Williams is 50 years old and still competing at this level. How much does that matter to the story?
It matters a lot. He's a former world champion who won his third title in 2018. His presence in a last-16 tie at the Masters isn't a curiosity — it's a statement about his longevity.
Three former world champions out in three matches. Is that a coincidence or a pattern?
It's hard to call it coincidence. Wu Yize and Xiao Guodong are part of a generation of Chinese players who've been knocking on the door for years. This might be the tournament where the door comes off its hinges.
What does a 71% pot success rate actually mean in practical terms?
It means roughly three in ten attempted pots missed. At this level, that's a lot of gift frames. Allen didn't need to be perfect — he just needed to be more reliable than that.
Allen faces either Trump or Ding on Thursday. Which matchup is more interesting?
Ding would be a fascinating contrast in styles. But Trump is the world number one and the tournament favourite. Either way, Allen's run gets significantly harder from here.
Is there anything in this match that suggests Allen could go deep in the tournament?
The 125 break stands out. That's not a scrappy, safety-first century — that's a player who's seeing the table clearly and trusting his cue action. That's the kind of form that wins tournaments.