Northern Ireland Open: Mark Allen defeated Jordan Browne to reach the fourth round

Mark Allen beat teammate Jordan Browne 5-2 in the quarter-finals of the Northern Ireland Open at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall.

The world number eight was asked questions in the match, but he found the answers to advance to the semi-finals against England’s Judd Trump on Saturday (19:00 GMT).

Allen started well with a break of 101 in the first frame, but Brown responded in style with a break of 131 in the second game to level the match.

The third turned into a tactical battle for the colors, but Allen saw the rim out and extended his lead in the fourth.

Brown struck back again, this time with a break of 120 to pull the frame back, but Allen produced the goods in the next frames to take the lead.

“It felt good to get over the line. It wasn’t a lot of fun playing with Jordan,” Allen told TNT Sports.

“It was probably a great occasion for the neutral as we had a lot of support, but it was a strange atmosphere because they want us to do well. I don’t enjoy beating Jordan too much because I always support him otherwise.”

“He played a lot of good things, made two centuries, dropped one or two balls in crucial moments. If the score had been 4-3 he would have been confident.”

“This is where he belongs. I’ve trained with him for 25 years and I know what he’s capable of. I told him at the end he had three good wins this week and needs to take the positives forward because it’s an outstanding piece of work.”

Trump was also a 5-2 winner in the quarterfinals, defeating John Higgins for the 13th consecutive time in a rankings event.

The world number one was trailing after the first frame, but won the next two rounds with breaks of 93 and 82 before Higgins equalized.

However, Trump took over from there with a pair of 72 breaks and finished with a winning 121 to reach the semi-finals for the first time this season.