2026 International Championship Snooker Final Preview: John Higgins v Kyren Wilson

A repeat of the Masters final from earlier this year, Higgins and Wilson will contest the title match in Nanjing, China to decide the destiny of this season’s eighth ranking event title and the £175,000 winner’s purse.

The best of 19 frames encounter will be played across two sessions (06:30GMT & 11:30GMT) at the SNC National Fitness Centre.

How did Wilson and Higgins reach the 2026 International Championship final?

Wilson very nearly didn't even make it to Nanjing, as he had to battle back from 5-2 down to defeat Irish youngster Leone Crowley, 6-5, in a qualifying match held in England several weeks ago.

In his opening match in the Far East, world number nine Wilson was in trouble again as he had to string together the final three frames to deny Liam Highfield, 6-5, in the last 64.

After a 6-1 success over Ryan Day, Wilson survived another decider, this time to Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals, before recovering from a first session deficit to get the better of Fan Zhengyi, 9-6, in the semi-finals.

Higgins' passage through has been a lot less stressful, defeating Craig Steadman 6-2 in qualifying before seeing off Lyu Haotian (6-3) and Xu Si (6-2) in the last 64 and 32 respectively.

The Scot was taken all the way by fellow snooker legend Mark Williams, 6-5, in the last 16, but went back to winning with spare change in seeing off Marco Fu 6-3 in the quarter-finals, and a fantastic performance to upset the odds as he crushed Chang Bingyu, 9-2, in the last four.

What would it mean for their seasons and careers?

Four-time world champion Higgins is on the cusp of one of his greatest achievements in the sport. The 51-year-old can become the oldest-ever winner of a ranking event title with victory over Wilson - eclipsing the record Williams set at the Xi’an Grand Prix in October 2025.

Appearing in his 61st ranking event final, ‘The Wizard of Wishaw’ is aiming for a 34th such crown - the last of which came at the Tour Championship in April 2025.

Since that triumph over 18 months ago, Higgins has made two more ranking finals: last year’s International Championship, and at the Players Championship.

Up until this week it had been a difficult start to the term for Higgins, and he was positioned 79th on the season ranking list. In September he talked about motivation issues for the new campaign, but earlier this week he explained feeling better having gone back to using a brass ferrule on his cue.

Wilson is the most in-form player on the World Snooker Tour who is currently on an 11-match winning streak. ‘The Warrior’ is looking for back-to-back ranking titles having reclaimed the Northern Ireland Open crown only a couple of weekends ago.

Similar to his final opponent, 34-year-old Wilson is overcoming cue issues. It has been quite a turnaround for ‘The Warrior’ who before Belfast a few weeks ago hadn’t appeared in the last four of a ranking event in over 18 months, and was projected to fall outside of the world’s elite top 16 rankings later in the season. That problem seems to have now been extinguished.

Runner-up at the Shanghai Masters invitational at the start of this term, Wilson is looking for a 12th ranking event accolade.

What’s the head-to-head record between Higgins and Wilson look like?

Removing short-raced Championship League affairs, Higgins leads Wilson 8-4 in their career head-to-head record, although Wilson has won two of their last three, both of which came on very big stages.

Their most recent encounter - and the only previous time they've met in a professional final - came at the 2026 Masters final in January where Wilson won 10-6 at the Alexandra Palace in London.

Four times before that they'd played each other in a multi-session match, all of which came at the Crucible Theatre in the World Championship.

Higgins won the first three (2017 quarter-finals, 13-6 | 2018 semi-finals, 17-13 | 2023 last 16, 13-2) but Wilson got the last with a 13-8 quarter-final victory en route to the world title in 2024.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 International Championship, visit our tournament information centre here.