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Mark Allen

Mark Allen continued his criticism of the Haikou World Open after beating Mark King 5-1 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Chinese event.

UK Championship finalist Allen made headlines on Thursday when he criticised conditions as "horrendous".

Allen's latest comments on Twitter were about the high temperature in the arena, which he said was a "disgrace."

"We asked if we could take our bow ties off as it was too warm," said Irishman Allen on Twitter.

"World Snooker said air con was full up. Got to Kingy a bit more than me. Played all right though all things considered."

quote That was one of the best matches I've played all year and I still lost John Higgins after losing to Robert Milkins

The Northern Irishman was joined in the semi-finals by Mark Selby, who beat his fellow Englishman Shaun Murphy 5-0.

In the second session of the day, world number 38 Robert Milkins gave an outstanding performance to beat Scotland's world number six John Higgins.

The Englishman now faces Stephen Lee, a 5-1 winner over Graeme Dott, in the semi-finals.

"I played really well and John played really well too, so it was a shame to see a loser, Milkins told worldsnooker.com external-link .

"I've never beaten John but to beat him like that when he was playing so well was extra special for me."

Higgins paid tribute to his opponent saying: "That was one of the best matches I've played all year and I still lost - he played great snooker."

Lee will play his second semi-final in a month and is looking forward to facing Milkins after his straightforward victory over Dott.

"The table was hard work," he said. "And we both struggled a bit. I'm looking forward to tomorrow though.

"Robert's just beaten John Higgins and I know him really well. He's a good aggressive player and I'll be bang up for it."