In this Aug 10, 2019 photo, Mark Allen of Northern Ireland competes during the semifinal against Shaun Murphy of England at 2019 World Snooker International Championship in Daqing, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (WANG SONG / XINHUA)

LONDON - Mark Allen breezed past three-time world champion Mark Selby 9-2 to reach the final of the Snooker Tour Championship on Thursday.

Mark Allen will face final opponent Stephen Maguire, who defeated Neil Robertson and world No 1 Judd Trump en-route

Allen will face final opponent Stephen Maguire, who defeated Neil Robertson and world No 1 Judd Trump en-route.

The 34-year-old Allen started the semifinal by winning four frames in a row and dominated the afternoon session with a stunning 7-1 lead, leaving Selby a gap too big to fill.

"The first four frames were what did the damage," Allen told the World Snooker Tour website. "I played as good as I can in the first four frames, he didn't pot a ball. It meant that going into frames five and six, he was still very cold and I had a lot of table time."

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The competition, which features the top eight players on the one-year ranking list, is the first ranking tournament since the snooker season was suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maguire replaced Ding Junhui for the event in Milton Keynes, as China's top player decided to pull out of the competition to avoid extensive travel from China to the UK.

Allen said: "We will both be switched on come match time tomorrow. We are both ultimate competitors and fierce on the table, so I don't expect that to be any different even though we are mates. May the best man win."