Emotional Donaldson defeats Allen in UK shock

With a late-night victory over Mark Allen on day three of the UK Championship, world number 52 Scott Donaldson won one of his best victories of his career.

The song he chose, Babylon by David Gray, was one of his father’s favorites and was played at his funeral, and his father, Hector, 70, passed away in tears as he walked to the arena before the game.

After the match, Donaldson said, “Snooker is a game, not life or death.

“With what I’ve been through, I can tell you what’s important and what’s not.” I just say, “It’s a game of snooker,” when the pressure is on, and I just get on with it.

“I was fine until I reached the top of the stairs,” my father once said. However, it was positive emotion. Although difficult to go through, I was okay once I received the first frame.

Donaldson, 31, acknowledged that keeping his composure as he jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the former world number one had been “very difficult” during the match.

Allen, who won this competition in 2022, pulled a frame back before the midsession break and appeared to be in a good position to tie the game.

However, Donaldson kept stumbling closer to victory in a fight that was full of lengthy, difficult frames, one of which lasted an hour and another around the 50-minute mark, before sealing a fantastic victory.

Donaldson has maintained that form at York Barbican despite going from 5-0 to 6-5 to defeat then-world champion Stuart Bingham in the final qualifying round.

He will now face three-time champion Ding Junhui, who defeated Xu Si of China with a 6-4 victory earlier on Monday.

Allen is currently the player with the highest-ranking first-round loss.

The 39-year-old added, “I’m disappointed – I didn’t really see that performance coming.” I did a good job of getting ready for the tournament, but my total defeat to 6-1 was unacceptable.

The balls were not doing what was being asked of them, despite what I had to say. I had a great time at the tournament, and while I’m fond of York, everything I’ve learned to love it has just fallen apart.

No complaints, just a bad day at work, I’d say.

A deciding frame was required for China’s Zhang Anda to scrape a 6-5 victory over England’s Gary Wilson, which added drama to table two.

Wilson, the tournament’s 12th seed, made breaks of 58, 52, 65, and 91 while he was 5-3 up, but Zhang, who had a maximum of 147 breaks last year, recovered and took the final three frames to claim the win.