Antrim’s Mark Allen has hit out at the World Snooker Tour for its ‘very poor coverage’ of his stint as World Number One.
The 38-year-old will start his Northern Ireland Open campaign at the Waterfront Hall on Monday evening, when he takes on China’s Liu Hongyu. The Antrim Ferrari is seeking his third success at his home championship in just four years.
Allen climbed to the top of snooker’s world rankings in May, only to see Judd Trump reclaim top spot over the summer.
Allen told BBC Sport NI: “It was a bit anti-climactic. It wasn’t really enjoyable if I’m honest. I feel like I got very poor coverage from the governing body and I didn’t get a lot of coverage here in Northern Ireland.
“Even turning up at events and I wasn’t on the main table all the time. Ultimately, if you keep winning matches and keep winning tournaments then that takes care of itself.
“It was a bit of a come down, really. I just feel like World Snooker have their favourites and that’s it.”
World Snooker Tour rebutted Allen’s claim: “We feel that we covered Mark’s rise to world number one positively – at the start of the season we sent a crew to Antrim to interview him about this achievement.
“We don’t prioritise specific players, we give them all an equal opportunity to promote the sport and entertain fans.”
Allen’s fellow Northern Irishman Jordan Brown crashed out on Sunday morning, losing 4-2 to Robert Milkins.
Top seed Trump booked his placed in the second round with a 4-0 win over Ishpreet Singh Chadha, while Jak Jones defeated Alexander Ursenbacher by the same scoreline. Zhou Yuelong also marched into the next round with a 4-3 win over Dominic Dale.