Mark Allen beats Cao Yupeng to become first top-16 player to win Shoot Out

The Northern Irishman, who was top seed at the Swansea Arena, won a scrappy final 65-4 after Cao fouled on the black and later went in off, to claim the £50,000 first prize.

Allen, nicknamed ‘The Pistol’, told Eurosport: “It’s just so hard. The easiest of shots turns into the most difficult and you feel more pressure here in a 10-minute frame than you would do in the final frame of a big ranking tournament final at 9-9 or something. It just does crazy things to your brain.”

World number four Allen had earlier negotiated a similarly scrappy semi-final from which he emerged a 60-8 winner over amateur Steven Hallworth, who was eventually made to pay for a series of poor early safety shots.

Cao had secured his place in the final with a 41-18 victory over Ali Carter, who was was left to rue an undercut blue after potting the first red, allowing his opponent to compile a break of 35.

However, Cao was unable to take advantage against Allen, who established 16-0 and 31-4 leads without ever looking like killing the frame off until a series of errors by his opponent allowed him to edge across the finishing line.