World Snooker Championship 2024: Semi-finals matches, preview and schedule

The collection of qualifiers for the 2024 World Snooker Championship was described as the strongest and most experienced we’ve ever had at the Crucible, but surely no one could have predicted the absolute carnage inflicted on the seed players throughout the first 12 days of the blue riband event.

For the first time since the introduction of the 32-player main draw format, three qualifiers have made it through to the semi-finals - meaning we are at least guaranteed one in the final - with world number 12 Kyren Wilson being the highest ranked player left in.

Even more out of the blue is the seasonal form of these four players. Between them, they’d only appeared in one ranking event last four this 2023/24 term (Wilson, 2024 German Masters) and coming to Sheffield they were all placed outside the top 16 on the one-year list.

However, they have all shone these past few days on the grandest stage of all and are two wins away from the sport’s premier prize and snooker immortality.

David Gilbert v Kyren Wilson

Scheduled sessions: Thursday 13:00BST, Friday 10:00BST, Friday 19:00BST, Saturday 14:30BST

Career head-to-head: Gilbert 5-6 Wilson

In running, former finalist Kyren Wilson is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the title.

It has been a frustrating campaign for the 32-year-old, but there were hints in recent months of a return to form. He has comfortably dropped the least amount of frames so far (15) out of all the remaining contestants and he finally defeated John Higgins at the Crucible in the quarter-finals having previously lost to him all three times there, including a 13-2 drilling last year.

‘A Crucible player’, Wilson has now reached the world semi-finals in four of the last seven installments.

Gilbert was out of love for snooker and out of form only a few weeks ago, but a new regime has revitalised the 42-year-old as he reaches the one-table for the second time in his career.

Following a dramatic comeback win to oust reigning champion Luca Brecel on the opening day, Gilbert got off to brilliant starts against both Robert Milkins and Stephen Maguire in the next two rounds and didn’t look back.

A very close head-to-head record, Wilson came out on top in the 2019 German Masters final, although only a few months later, Gilbert turned the tables at the Crucible with a quarter-final win.

Jak Jones v Stuart Bingham

Scheduled sessions: Thursday 19:00BST, Friday 14:30BST, Saturday 10:00BST, Saturday 19:00BST

Career head-to-head: Jones 1-0 Bingham

An all-qualifier match-up for the second semi-final - although two players with very different career CVs at this point - there were no indications whatsoever that either cueist would have a run here given that both were placed outside the top 56 on the one-year list.

The first player in 25 years to make the last eight in their first two Crucible appearances, Welshman Jones continues to upset the form book under intense scrutiny; the 30-year-old created possibly the biggest quarter-final surprise ever when he dumped out former winner Judd Trump.

Despite the unpredictable semi-final line-up, Jones is the only player out of the four not to have made this stage before, been inside the world’s top 16 or won a ranking title. That hasn’t stopped him so far, though.

The only player remaining who knows what it’s like to lift the most prestigious trophy of all, it looked like 47-year-old Bingham’s career was being left in the doldrums following an abject few years.

However, after needing to qualify and getting through two incredibly tough preliminaries, the 2015 champion has dispatched Gary Wilson, Jack Lisowski and Ronnie O’Sullivan, and is aiming to join a very elite band of multiple-time world champions.

Jones and Bingham have only met once in competition; Jones won 4-0 in the quarter-finals of the 2022 Gibraltar Open. Interestingly, that led to Jones’ only previous career ranking event semi-final.