The Masters - Day Six - Allen hailed as new Masters favourite

It's about time Mark Allen won the a major event.

That's what the snooker world seems to be agreeing on as his brilliant run at this year's Masters continued yesterday.

After knocking out the tournament favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round, and being told he needs to go on and win it by the Rocket, he toppled world champion Neil Robertson 6-4 in the quarter-final, before he said the same.

John Parrott and Steve Davis seem to agree in the  studio as well.

Allen faced the Aussie in good enough form to most professionals. But with the match locked at 4-4, the Northern Ireland man produced the kind of form usually reserved for that of a champion.

He won the final two frames in virtually one visit, showing the kind of focus he's perhaps been lacking in the early years of his career. As I sat watching the match yesterday, I saw a more considered Allen in action. Still showcasing his vast potting talents, he was purposefully weighing up the consequences of his attacking shots far more thoroughly than in the past.

Now, with two of the best wins of his career under his belt, the whole of the snooker world is talking about the tournament as his to lose.

That may be a little far, but you catch their drift that Allen has a great chance to make his mark. In fact, the only thing that has stopped him winning a major event before now is how good other players have been, because he's for a while now been good enough to win competitions based on his own ability.

Nothing much has changed in that sense, but maybe now it's just his time. A time he needs to take.

But he shouldn't be planning his winning press conference just yet.

If he was in his hotel room watching Marco Fu last night, he'll soon have realised his work is far from done. The Hong King potter pulled Peter Ebdon apart with an impressive 6-0 whitewash.

Ebdon wasn't at the races and couldn't get going at all, but that didn't stop Fu taking his chances well and playing some quality snooker along the way.

Fu recently drifted out of the top 16. While this run won't give him any ranking points to support his bid to get back in, it shows what every well-informed snooker already knows. On his day, he's good enough to be comfortably among the elite, and even good enough to still win events.

You get the feeling the Wembley crowd will want Allen to win this semi-final, and he'll go into it as favourite, as he now is for the title, but Fu has never been one to crave neutral support. He'll make it difficult for Allen, who for the first time in his career must deal with the tag of being a favourite, whereas in the past he's only ever been a pretender, although a very talented one.