Lisowski to encounter all-or-nothing jackpot match as Welsh Open semi-finals set

The pressure is already huge at the business end of a world ranking event, but there is added spice, and a sizeable extra incentive for Lisowski who will scoop the £150,000 seasonal Home Nations Series bonus prize if he makes the final.

The annual jackpot is awarded to the player who earns the most cumulative prize money from across that season's four Home Nations events - the English, Northern Ireland, Scottish, and Welsh Opens.

With this being the final leg of that quartet, Mark Allen currently leads the standings, but will be overtaken by Lisowski - the only player who can usurp him now - should he defeat Higgins in their best of 11 frames semi-final encounter on Saturday night (from 19:00GMT).

Earlier this season, Englishman Lisowski - who had lost all six of his previous final appearances - won his maiden ranking event title after ousting world number one Judd Trump, 9-8, in the Northern Ireland Open final at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.

The triumph was particularly poignant for Lisowski, coming against his good friend Trump, and just months after the unexpected death of his father.

Since that glorious breakthrough, results had been disappointing for the 34-year-old, and earlier this week in North Wales he admitted to struggling with his game.

However, 'Jackpot' has battled his way through this week, his latest victory being a 5-2 success over former world champion Stuart Bingham.

Breaks of 70 and 118 helped Lisowski to a dominant 4-0 mid-session interval lead, but Bingham - who stopped current world champion Zhao Xintong's 11-match winning streak the night before - took the next two frames on resumption to threaten a huge comeback. Lisowski, though, managed to cross the finish line in the next.

With the step up in prize money between the semis and final for the competition itself, the difference between winning and losing for Lisowski on Saturday is £174,000.

And four-time world champion Higgins will be a huge obstacle. The Scot reached the 92nd ranking event semi-final of his long, illustrious career - his second in as many weekends after being runner-up at the Players Championship in Telford - by whitewashing Zhou Yuelong, 5-0, with runs 75 and 67. Zhou would have won the Home Nations bonus with the title.

Going for a record-extending sixth Welsh Open crown, 50-year-old Higgins can become professional snooker’s oldest-ever ranking event champion this weekend, eclipsing fellow ‘Class of 92’ graduate Mark Williams’ record that the Welshman set at the Xi’an Grand Prix a few months ago.

Saturday’s first semi-final (from 13:00GMT) will be between Hawkins and Wu, who both emerged from quarter-final contents that they didn’t look like winning.

Despite registering a high break of just 28, Hawkins led Neil Robertson 3-1 at the interval. Robertson - who had fashioned runs of 53, 102, 54, 61 and 132 - restored parity at 3-3, but it was ‘The Hawk’ who flew into the next round as a 5-3 winner, compiling a break of 93 in the final frame, his only half-century of the tie.

World number 12 Wu may be wondering how he is still in having come back from 4-1 down to deny fellow Chinese youngster Jiang Jun, 5-4.

International Championship winner Wu began strong with an 80 in the opening frame, but Jiang - conqueror of Mark Selby earlier this week - constructed efforts of 68, 64 and 55 during a four-frame winning streak to stand on the cusp of a maiden ranking event semi-final appearance.

However, momentum swung, as breaks of 71 and 89 aided Wu in forcing a decider. Whilst in the balls in the final frame, Jiang overcut a fiddly black to open the door for Wu, who gladly accepted the invite by making a match-winning sequence of 65.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 Welsh Open, visit here.