Mark Allen beat John Higgins 10-7 in hard-fought encounter to move into the quarter-finals of the Tour Championship in Manchester.

Higgins led 4-1 during Monday’s opening session but Allen compiled a superb 123 break on his way to levelling matters.

While the duo traded the next four frames, two centuries and a run of 93 helped the Northern Irishman pull away from Scotland’s Higgins.

Allen faces China’s Ding Junhui in the last eight on Wednesday (19:00 BST).

“I was hanging in there at the start,” said the 38-year-old Allen. “He (Higgins) froze me out, but to get out of the earlier session at 4-4 I was happy about.

“It is fine margins in these matches. I won three frames on the black and I also won a frame with John touching a ball with his sleeve so it could have been a very different scoreline.”

It was a composed performance from Allen, who grew stronger as the contest wore on in front of healthy crowd attending the first ranking event played in central Manchester.

He also benefitted from coming out on top in three frames decided on the black – crucially winning the seventh frame to reduce the arrears to 4-3. Allen then took the 14th frame to open up a two-frame lead at 8-6 after Higgins saw a long pink rattle in the jaws of the left corner pocket.

While four-time world champion Higgins looked assured among the balls compiling a half century in each of the frames he won, he was let down by his long game and the concession of uncharacteristic fouls.

Higgins sportingly called one on himself for touching the white twice and also brushed the green with his shirt in the 16th frame when he was in, presenting Allen with the chance to take the frame at one visit on his return to the table.