Chris Wakelin reaches International Championship final and secures maiden top 16 spot
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Victory for the 32-year-old Englishman secures his third appearance in a ranking event final; he'll be going for his second crown after winning the Snooker Shoot Out in early 2023.
The £75,000 he is guaranteed for reaching Sunday's showpiece fixture in the Far East is already his biggest payday, and that amount is very significant because it will push him into the world's top 16 for the first time in his career when the standings are revised following the conclusion of this event.
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Going into the sport’s elite bracket means that Wakelin will be a seed for the main venue stages of the upcoming 2024 UK Championship in York, and will therefore not need to play in the qualifying rounds in Leicester. Wakelin also puts himself in a brilliant position for a debut at the Masters in January.
In Friday’s semi-final, Wakelin claimed the opening frame before Wuhan Open Champion Xiao - who is also on a crest of a wave and will also break into the world's top 16 for the first time following this event - levelled the match before going 2-1 up with the aid of an 83 break.
Wakelin, though, would then take six of the next seven frames to assume control of the tie.
Runs of 54, 77 and 61 helped Wakelin go 4-2 ahead. Xiao made a decisive 73 in frame seven to reduce the gap to one, and looked like claiming the final frame of the opening session when he held a 45 points lead. However, Wakelin cleared with a steely 62 break to pinch the frame.
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Returning a few hours later for the concluding session, Wakelin compiled efforts of 63 and 119 to strengthen his advantage to 7-3, although Xiao stopped the rot and fired the match back up again as he deposited the next two frames; a 69 break assisted him in frame 11 before he nabbed frame 12 on the final black.
Following the mid-session interval, Wakelin got back on track and reached the hill (52 break) at 8-5 up, but he struggled to get over the line and proceedings became very sticky for him as Xiao (90 break, frame 15) strung together the next three frames to force a decider.
Despite the rally from his opponent, and with so many rewards potentially up for grabs for him, Wakelin responded brilliantly in the 17th and final frame. After Xiao had initially got in first, Wakelin composed himself for what would prove to be a crucial and essentially match-winning contribution of 67.
Wakelin will meet another Chinese cueist on their home soil in Sunday’s final, with the second semi-final between Ding Junhui and Xu Si taking place on Saturday in Nanjing. The winner of the final will also claim a place at next week’s Champion of Champions in Bolton.
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If Wakelin lifts the trophy here on Sunday and pockets the £175,000 top prize, he would move to 11th in the world rankings and put himself firmly in the picture for getting into the top 10 following the UK Championship, and therefore earn an invite to the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in Saudi Arabia just before Christmas.
As a result of Wakelin’s last four win, Jak Jones slips outside of the world’s top 16 and will need to qualify for the televised stages of the UK Championship.
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