Breaking news: preview of the semi-finals draw and schedule……
On Saturday, the two semi-finals of the 2023 Scottish Open will be held at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank Sports Centre
Only two more victories are needed to win the Stephen Hendry Trophy and the £80,000 winner’s cheque
The defending champion and a local legend are on opposite sides of the draw, while two players hoping to make their big breakthroughs are also vying for glory
Let’s take a look at both Scottish Open semi-final matches
Reigning champion Gary Wilson was perhaps fortunate to emerge from some of his early-round encounters this week
The Englishman needed deciding frames to settle his first three battles, but since then he has lost just one frame
On Friday, Wilson thrashed Chris Wakelin 5-0, making breaks of 118, 96, 82, and 68(x2) in the process
It had been a disappointing 2023/24 campaign before Scotland, but the 38 year-old is now guaranteed a spot at the World Grand Prix next month
Wilson has risen to 32nd on the provisional one-year rankings, and every player behind him on the list is now out of the Scottish Open
Zhou Yuelong will be the Tyneside Terror’s opponent in the last four after the Chinese cueist denied Stuart Bingham in a decider
Zhou had appeared to be coasting when he orchestrated a 4-1 advantage, but the former world champion fought back to force a final frame
A timely contribution of 70 from Zhou finally saw him move past the winning post, though
Zhou and Wilson have played each other a handful of times, with the latter enjoying the superior head-to-head record
However, most of those clashes were short affairs, and the only previous best-of-11 fixture that they played was at the same stage of the 2020 European Masters
On that day, Zhou edged a dramatic showdown 6-5
The evening bout at the Scottish Open on semi-finals day will feature home favorite John Higgins
Higgins is the only remaining member of the top 16 in the tournament, and while he would never admit it publicly, he must be quietly optimistic about his chances from here
The Wizard of Wishaw came within a point of winning the Stephen Hendry Trophy twice, once in 2016 and again in 2021, when he lost finals to Marco Fu and Luca Brecel
Higgins must first defeat Noppon Saengkham to reach the same stage this year
The popular Thai has had a season of consistency, and he has firmly established himself as a member of the world’s top 32
Nonetheless, like Zhou in the top half of the draw, Saengkham will be hoping to put his name on ranking silverware for the first time
This is the 31-year-old’s fifth trip to a ranking semi-final, and he has lost the previous four
Saengkham has beaten Higgins four times in their previous ten meetings, including at this tournament in 2020, though at a different venue
Last year’s World Championship featured the duo’s most high-profile duel, a second-round match in Sheffield that Higgins won 13-7
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