Mark Allen claimed his first ever ranking title by thrashing Stephen Lee 10-1 to win the Haikou World Open on Sunday afternoon.
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The Northern Irish youngster ended a long overdue wait for a maiden televised ranking win with a series of superb performances during the week, culminating in a hammering of a helpless Stephen Lee.
He takes home the £75,000 first prize, along with an abundance of ranking points, which propel him to number seven in the world rankings.
The 26 year-old Antrim ace carried a huge 8-1 lead into the evening session and two frames were all that were required for him to seal a magnificent victory.
Breaks of 104, 50, 127 and 53 did the damage in the morning session as Lee was made to pay for the few chances he wasted.
The man from Trowbridge secured his passage to the final courtesy of a number of fine performances, but could not reproduce that form in the biggest game of all.
His only consolation came in the sixth frame as he made a break of 67 to ensure he added a frame to the scoreboard.
The paying crowd in Haikou saw just two frames in the second session as Allen battled to win a scrappy tenth frame before making a marvellous clearance of 104 to finally secure the title.
He had beaten Jimmy Robertson, Judd Trump, Mark King and Mark Selby en route to the final, and can look ahead to the final two events of the season with renewed confidence.
"I played pretty well today. I started out well and put Stephen under pressure. I think when I was 4-0 up he knew he had to play pretty much flawless for the rest of the match." said Allen.
"It hasn't really sunk in yet; it may take a day or two but I think once I get home and see my family and friends we'll have celebratory drink and I think it will sink in that I've actually done it," added Allen, whose previous biggest title was the invitational 2009 Jiangsu Classic, also in China.
"It's been a long time coming as I've been a pro for seven years now, I think this will be the first of many.
I'll celebrate with my family and friends when at home but after that it's back to business and practice for the next tournament as it's a long season and I'm not going to get carried away. But I'll enjoy this one," added The Pistol.
A good week ended in disappointment for Lee, who suffers the heaviest ranking final defeat since Stephen Maguire beat David Gray 10-1 at the 2004 UK Championship.
"I was a bit disappointed at the end of the week but I have had a great time this week and the best man won on the day," said the Wiltshire cueist.
"I was devastated that I've not played a part in the final today. At this level if you don't play your part, you get steamrollered and Mark could see I was struggling to get involved in the match. If you can see people down then you keep them down and Mark has done a good job on me today and good luck to him," he added.
The next televised event on the snooker calendar is the Players Tour Championship Finals in Ireland from March 14-18.
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Sunday 4th March
Stephen Lee (ENG) 1-10 Mark Allen (NIR)
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