SCOTT DONALDSON pulled off an upset by knocking former world No1 Mark Allen out of the UK Championship – but only after he entered the arena in tears.
The Scotsman sealed his place in the competition by overcoming a five-frame deficit to beat Stuart Bingham in the final qualifying round.
And Donaldson, 31, recorded one of the best wins of his career when he sealed a 6-1 victory over Allen on day three of the UK Championship.
The world No52, whose father Hector died at the age of 70 in October, was crying when he entered York Barbican.
He also chose to walk out to Babylon, by David Gray, which was one of his dad’s favourite songs and played at his funeral.
That resulted in Donaldson being full of emotion, but he regained his composure and ended Allen’s hopes of winning the UK Championship for a second time.
He said: “Snooker is a game at the end of the day, it’s not life or death.
“With what I have been through, I can tell you what’s important and what’s not important.
“When the pressure is coming on, I just tell myself ‘it’s a game of snooker’ and get on with it.
“I was fine until I got to the top of the stairs – and the last time I was in this venue was with my dad.
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“It was good emotion though. Tough to go through but once I got the first frame, after that I was all right.”
Donaldson took the first three frames before a break of 57 allowed Allen to threaten a fightback heading into the mid-session interval.
But the Northern Irishman could not recover from the deficit and was full of praise for his opponent.
Allen, 39, said: “It took a big character to continue playing and all credit to Scott with everything he has been through.
“It looked like he was giving everything on every shot.”
Donaldson will face Ding Junhui, who registered a 6-4 win over Xu Si, in the second round of the UK Championship.
