Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen won his fifth ranking title on Sunday night after battling past Shaun Murphy in the final of the Scottish Open. The two close friends went to battle in Glasgow and Allen eventually lifted the trophy after a close encounter.

Allen made a flying start with a break of 110 before Murphy responded to level the match. The two then continued to exchange frames before Murphy made an error when 8-7 down. He miscued on 29 and Allen pounced to produce a winning break of 83.

Allen got a little lucky when going for the pink but eventually sealed the win in front of a packed crowd.

The 32-year-old is now enjoying the best run of his career, having won two ranking titles in 2018. He also finished runner-up to Ronnie O’Sullivan at last week’s UK Championship, but Sunday’s win earns him £70,000.

Allen has earned £353,000 in ranking competition so far this season and he has already turned attention to the Dafabet Masters next month, where he will defend his title.

“As the match went on, I got stronger. At 7-6 down I produced some good snooker,” Allen told World Snooker.

“Shaun will probably rue a few missed chances, as his long game was ridiculously good today. He created a lot of good opportunities which he didn’t quite convert into frame winning chances.

“I was playing with my little girl in the mid-session interval. I just kept her occupied for 15 minutes. I miss her a lot and she obviously misses me a lot given her reaction when I came in. It actually completely relaxed me.

“We all know how good every player is when it comes to the Masters. There are no easy matches and I will need to perform to my very best to try and defend my title.”