It was a dominant performance from a young Northern Irishman at the Haikou World Snooker Open. Mark Allen claimed his first ranking title, and his first trip to the winner's circle happened in convincing fashion.
Allen had taken out big names like Jimmy Robertson, Judd Trump and Mark King en route to the semi-finals and he put on a magical show on Saturday. That's when he came back from 5-2 down to defeat Mark Selby and book his place in the final.
Lee was in devastating form in some of the earlier rounds, and he talked a good fight in advance of the final. But he was no match for Allen's focused performance. The Northern Irishman raced to a 5-0 lead in a little over an hour and a half.
Breaks of 104, 50, 127 and 53 did the damage as Lee looked a little tentative. But Lee stemmed the flow in the sixth frame...a run of 67 finally put him on the scoreboard. Allen took the next frame to lead 6-1, and then went on to clear. He stole the frame for a 7-1 lead, Allen's run of 123 in the final frame of the session made it 8-1.
The 26-year-old held a lead of 9-1 and then made a break of 104 points. Allen won the match 10-1 for his first ranking trophy and a winner's cheque for 75-thousand pounds.
The Haikou World Open signalled a new hotspot for snooker has arrived in Asia. It was just the beginning for the tournament, and it is expected to build on its experience on Hainan Island in the upcoming years.
Gan Liantong, Executive Director of Haikou World Open Organizing Committee, said "We will try to include more entertaining aspects into the tournament. We are thinking about becoming more interactive with the spectators, which we hope attract more people's attention to the sport and the tournament."

2012年斯诺克海口世界公开赛昨天落下帷幕。“北爱新锐”马克•艾伦10比1战胜斯蒂芬•李，夺得职业生涯首个排名赛冠军，并收获7.5万英镑的冠军奖金。