Mark Allen sparks into life as he advances at the 2026 World Snooker Championship

Former world number one Allen was 5-2 behind to Chinese qualifier Zhang before claiming eight of the next ten frames to progress to the last 16 of the Championship for the 15th time in his career.

This season's English Open champion, Allen took the opening frame of the contest on Saturday morning, but the in-form Zhang - who was a seed player here in each of the last two years - crafted breaks of 129, 75, 109, 58 and 72 in building a 5-2 lead.

Perhaps crucially, Allen took what would be the final frame of the opening session before the players were pulled off one frame early due to time restraints.

Returning the next morning, Allen closed the gap further, although former International Champion Zhang re-established a two-frame buffer at 6-4 up.

But Allen immediately sparked into life and started gliding through the gears.

Having not made a single half-century break earlier in the tie, Allen fashioned runs of 140 and 109 in back-to-back frames to restore parity at 6-6.

And on resumption after the final mid-session break, momentum stayed with the Northern Irish ace as he took frames 13 and 14 before a 129 put him on the hill at 9-6 up.

The number 14 seed then wrapped up victory with an 81 - his sixth consecutive frame - to cap a brilliant second session performance.

Allen will face either world number two Kyren Wilson or English teenager Stan Moody in round two next week. That match is scheduled to be completed on Monday with morning and evening sessions.

It is the sixth year in-a-row that ‘The Pistol’ has negotiated his opening assignment at the Crucible; he made the semi-finals in 2023.

Allen's night of drinks, betting and football following 'embarrassing' first session

In his post-match interview, Allen admitted to enjoying his night off in between sessions to take his mind off a very disappointing first session during which he didn't make a single half-century break.

Allen revealed that he has been on a health kick in preparation for this year's Championship, but was left perplexed and frustrated with his performance in the first half of his encounter with Zhang.

"I was actually embarrassing yesterday, very, very frustrating. I was completely gutted with my performance yesterday.

"I prepared a little differently for this morning. I went and had some drinks with my mates and probably a few too many drinks, and then just sat and watched the football.

"No-one says as much bad stuff about themselves as I do. But yeah, every session's different, and like I'm not advocating preparing for a world championship match like I did yesterday, but something needed to change because for the last month I've been practicing really hard.

"I've been so disciplined, not saying that I'm not disciplined anyway, but I've been practicing particularly hard, I've been in the gym, I've been working with a PT now doing like three sessions a week and I feel physically stronger, fitter. Eating protein shakes, every vitamin tablet under the sun to try and make myself feel better and got there yesterday and can't make more than 46.

"I felt like what more do I need to do to prepare properly for this tournament?

"And then, like I say, I just went out and had a few drinks. Then we watched the football, had a few bets, and a few more drinks, some bad food, and then went to bed and get ready for today."

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 World Snooker Championship, visit our tournament information centre here.