{"id":809160,"date":"2026-10-21T01:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809160\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T01:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:02:09","slug":"im-in-a-bad-place-mark-allen-says-his-snooker-career-may-be-over-after-defeat-snooker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/809160\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m in a bad place\u2019: Mark Allen says his snooker career may be over after defeat | Snooker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Allen said he was in a \u201cbad place\u201d and his snooker career could be over after losing to Jordan Brown in the first round of the Northern Ireland<\/a> Open in Belfast.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old was playing his first match since his world championship semi-final loss to Wu Yize in April. Allen missed a match-ball black off the spot at 16-15 in front and went on to lose the deciding frame to Wu, who went on to win the title.<\/p>\n

Allen has since stayed away from the tour due to personal issues that he has kept private \u2013 although they are understood not to relate directly to his Crucible defeat. After his 4-2 loss to Brown, a close friend who is also from Antrim, Allen indicated he is set to take another long break from the sport \u2013 and could make it permanent.<\/p>\n

In an emotional interview with TNT Sports<\/a> after the match, Allen said he was \u201creally overwhelmed\u201d, adding: \u201cI\u2019m in a bad place at the minute, so even just to go out there and try was tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if I wasn\u2019t playing Jordan I wouldn\u2019t have come back,\u201d the former world No 1 said. \u201cI felt like if I was going to play one last time, playing here at the Waterfront, where it all started in 2005, against one of my best mates \u2013 I thought that was a better way to sign out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he was serious about his threat to retire from professional snooker, Allen confirmed his view and continued: \u201cI\u2019ve been flooded with support but the problems are within. I just don\u2019t see a future with snooker in it, if I\u2019m honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad to say, because it\u2019s all I\u2019ve loved to do since I was 12 but the last few months has been really difficult and it\u2019s put snooker into perspective for me. At the minute I\u2019m just trying to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In a separate interview with BBC Sport NI, Allen said: \u201cThe last three months have been really, really difficult and I think even just being here today is an achievement. I am not going to announce [retirement] right now after a defeat, but it is something I have been contemplating for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen, currently ranked No 12 in the world after his hiatus, has won 12 ranking tournaments in his career, including the 2022 UK Championship and two Northern Ireland Open titles. He has reached the world championship semi-finals three times, and lifted the Masters trophy in 2018.<\/p>\n

Brown, whose sole ranking title came at the 2021 Welsh Open, said: \u201cFirst and foremost it\u2019s just great to see Mark back playing. He obviously came through a tough time off the table and I\u2019m with him every step of the way, like everybody is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all behind him. I miss him and I love him and we all just want to see him healthy and well and playing the game that he loves so much,\u201d Brown added. \u201cHe\u2019s a great player and a great guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the World Snooker<\/a> Tour and the sport\u2019s governing body, the WPBSA, have provided support to Allen and have indicated their desire to continue helping him in any way they can.<\/p>\n

Allen is one of a number of high-profile players to exit this year\u2019s Northern Ireland Open in the first round. Shaun Murphy was beaten 4-2 by Wales\u2019 Liam Davies, with Mark Selby losing to Louis Heathcote by the same scoreline.<\/p>\n

The world No 1, Zhao Xintong, also lost 4-2 to Chinese compatriot Gao Yang while Neil Robertson went down 4-1 to Ricky Walden. Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan also fell at the first hurdle, beaten 4-3 by Cheung Ka Wai of Hong Kong. The defending champion, Jack Lisowski, did advance to the last 32 with a 4-1 win over Huang Jiahao.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Allen said he was in a \u201cbad place\u201d and his snooker career could be over after losing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-809160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}