Kyren Wilson to play Judd Trump in the 2024 Xi'an Grand Prix snooker final

Wilson and Trump respectively defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan and Daniel Wells in Saturday's semi-finals to set up the best of 19 frames title match across two sessions at the Xi’an Qujiang E-sports Centre. The winner will be the inaugural champion and collect a top prize of £177,000.

His first ranking event appearance outside of the UK as the World Champion, Wilson began his week in the Far East with 5-2 victories over Haris Tahir and He Guoqiang, followed by a 5-3 success against Ricky Walden in the last 32 - a tie during which he made two century breaks.

Wilson’s Xi’an journey nearly ended in the last 16 on the main feature table as he came from behind three times - including 4-2 - to deny Jimmy Robertson, crafting a cool counter clearance of 72 when he was 51 points down in the deciding frame. The 32-year-old then stopped Xu Si’s run in the quarter-finals with a 5-1 victory.

In the last four, breaks of 57, 74, 64 and 74 helped Wilson go 5-1 up and to the brink of progression, although O’Sullivan rallied - efforts of 87 and 55 aided him to two behind - before he closed the gap to just one with a pressure clearance followed by a fluked double on a re-spotted black into a corner pocket.

The charge didn’t seem to perturb Wilson, though, as he steadied himself with an excellent run of 102 in frame 10 to secure a 6-4 win and advance to his 15th ranking event final. Wilson is aiming for his seventh ranking trophy.

Trump - who is now guaranteed to be the world number one when the World Snooker Tour professional rankings are updated on Monday - has cruised into the Xi’an final, relinquishing just seven frames in six matches.

Having started his campaign at the ‘qualifiers’ in Leicester a few weeks ago with a 5-2 win over Antoni Kowalski, in China this week Trump has notched up a further five victories; defeating Ma Hailong 5-0, Lyu Haotian 5-1, Jak Jones 5-1, David Gilbert 5-2, and then Daniel Wells 6-1 in the semi-finals.

In his meeting with world number 65 Wells - who had enjoyed a brilliant week in making his third ranking event semi-final - Trump totted up breaks of 67, 64, 96, 56, 63 and 99.

The winner of last month’s Shanghai Masters invitational, Trump continues his 100% start to the 2024/25 professional season; he now has 10 match wins from 10.

If Trump triumphs on Sunday, it will be his fourth big title in China in just over 10 months. He won the 2023 Wuhan Open in October and the 2023 World Open in March. In total, Trump has currently won 24 of his last 25 professional matches in the country.

Victory on Sunday would also make Trump the most decorated winner of ranking event titles in China with eight. At the moment he is tied with Mark Selby on seven.

Xi’an Grand Prix Final: Kyren Wilson v Judd Trump career head-to-head record

Kyren Wilson and Judd Trump have shared many memorable matches down the years.

In all professional competitions, they have faced each other 30 times, with Trump leading the count 18-12. Trump has won their last four meetings, though; two of those coming in the Masters at the Alexandra Palace in London. Their most recent encounter came earlier this year, in China, when Trump prevailed 5-2 in the last eight on his way to the World Open title in Yushan.

This will be the fourth time they have played each other in a ranking event final, and on that particular score, Wilson leads 2-1.

It’s a bit of a case of going full circle for Wilson, as his initial thrust into big-time snooker stardom came when he memorably ousted Trump 10-9 in the final to win the 2015 Shanghai Masters as a qualifier ranked 54th in the world.

Trump pipped Wilson 4-3 in the 2020 Gibraltar Open final - a brilliant contest that highlighted four century breaks (three for Trump, one for Wilson). Later in the same year, Wilson defeated Trump 3-1 in the title match to claim Championship League Ranking Event glory.