Mark Allen bounces woeful Higgins out of Masters

WORLD champion John Higgins was woeful as he suffered a Pokerstars.com Masters first-round exit to Mark Allen at Wembley Arena.

Allen made numerous errors but Higgins made even more as the Northern Irishman held on for a 6-3 triumph.

The 23-year-old will now face Mark Selby, who beat China's Ding Junhui 6-1 on Sunday, in the last eight.

Higgins won the opening frame, before Allen took the second and third frames.

Higgins responded in the fourth and appeared set to be levelling the match, but fouled, touching a red with his cue as he was lining up a black. Allen took advantage to take a two-frame advantage at the interval.

Higgins won a tactical battle to narrow the deficit, world No 11 Allen made a break of 51 in the sixth frame and it was enough to hold on, but again Higgins hit back to narrow the deficit at 4-3.

The see-saw battle continued, with Allen taking the eighth frame and he built to 50 without response in the ninth before clinching the match as Higgins' terrible display continued.

Allen conceded his performance was poor and he was surprised Higgins was even worse.

"It wasn't very good," Allen said. "I missed too many balls."