2024 English Open Snooker: Saturday's Semi-Finals Preview and Order of Play
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We are guaranteed a first-time ranking event finalist when China's Wu Yize faces India's Ishpreet Singh Chadha in the afternoon session in a contest pitching together the world numbers 40 and 77, respectively.
20-year-old Wu recorded arguably the biggest win of his life on Friday when he dethroned defending English Open champion and World Number One Judd Trump to reach his second career ranking event semi-final. In previous rounds, Wu dismissed local players Stuart Bingham and Ali Carter.
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Singh Chadha is having by far the best week of his professional snooker career, to date. In only his second season on the World Snooker Tour, the 28-year-old had never been past the last 32 of a ranking event prior to his incredible run in Brentwood that has seen him navigate six matches all the way from round one.
The £21,000 he is guaranteed for making the final four is exactly three times more than his previous biggest payday on the professional circuit that he earned at the recent Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
India's number one professional has defeated Simon Blackwell, Graeme Dott, Jak Jones, Hossein Vafaei, He Guoqiang and Mark Selby during his breakthrough run. Three of those matches went to a deciding frame, including against Selby where Singh Chadha compiled a steely clearance to win on the final black after the four-time World Champion had battled back from 4-1 down.
Wu and Singh Chadha have played each other on the sport’s top tier only once before - in the opening round of last year’s English Open when Wu won, 4-0.
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Chris Wakelin and Neil Robertson are set to share the baize in the evening session.
Positioned 24th in the world coming into this tournament, former Snooker Shoot Out champion Wakelin is the highest ranked player left in, being two places ahead of his last four opponent.
The 32-year-old Englishman is into the third ranking event semi-final of his career; last season he made the final of the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast. En route to the one-table set-up this week, Wakelin eliminated Zhang Anda, recovered from 3-0 down to defeat Pang Junxu, 4-3, in a last 16 comeback victory, and denied Mark Allen 5-2 in the quarters.
Robertson's career resurgence continues. A quarter-finalist in Riyadh earlier this month, the Australian is through to his second ranking event semi-final within the past 21 months.
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The 23-time ranking event winner has relinquished just four frames in four matches in Essex. Success on Saturday would represent Robertson's first ranking event final appearance in over 29 months.
Wakelin and Robertson have played each other six times in all competitions on the professional circuit - Robertson leads the head-to-head, 5-1.
Both semi-final matches are the best of 11 frames with a scheduled mid-session interval after four.
2024 English Open Snooker, Saturday 21st September match schedule:
13:00BST
- Wu Yize v Ishpreet Singh Chadha
19:00BST
- Chris Wakelin v Neil Robertson
For full details on the 2024 English Open including the draw, results, prize money, schedule and how to watch, please visit our tournament information centre here.
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