The semi-finals for the 2024 UK Championship happen on Saturday with a star-studded lineup of gamers nonetheless heading in the right direction for glory in York.
Friday’s quarter-finals didn’t produce the identical stage of drama because the spherical earlier than, the place 5 out of the eight second-round fixtures required deciding frames.
Nevertheless, the final 4 on the Barbican Centre contains 4 confirmed champions of the game and three former winners of Triple Crown occasions.
Let’s check out each semi-finals within the 2024 UK Championship draw.
Barry Hawkins vs Mark Allen
Mark Allen is defending the rating factors that he earned by capturing his maiden UK Championship title two years in the past.
Up to now so good for the Pistol this week as he mounts one other problem in what’s the season’s opening Triple Crown match.
Allen reversed a 3-1 deficit to Jack Lisowski within the quarter-finals, reeling off the remaining 5 frames after the mid-session interval to win 6-3.
The Northern Irishman will face Barry Hawkins subsequent, the latter having additionally produced a powerful end to dispatch of 2008 UK champion Shaun Murphy.
From 2-2 of their last-eight contest, Hawkins performed virtually no-miss snooker and raced to the profitable line by taking the concluding 4 frames.
The Hawk has already assured his spot on the prestigious Masters invitational in January by reaching this level of the competitors.
However the 45 year-old could have his sights now firmly set on lastly breaking his duck at a serious Triple Crown occasion.
4-time rating occasion winner Hawkins boasts an inferior head-to-head document towards Allen however has crushed the world quantity three the final two occasions they’ve performed, together with on the Xi’an Grand Prix in the summertime.
Judd Trump vs Kyren Wilson
It doesn’t get a lot greater as of late on the World Snooker Tour than a tie between Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson.
The world numbers one and two will conflict on the Barbican Centre on Saturday afternoon with a spot in Sunday’s UK Championship last on the road.
The pair’s rivalry dates all the best way again to the 2015 Shanghai Masters last when Wilson – then a lowly qualifier – shocked Trump to seize a maiden rating crown.
Trump loved the higher hand for a few years after that, however not too long ago it’s been Wilson who has dominated their highest-profile affairs.
Certainly, boosted by the arrogance gained from touchdown his first world title in Could, the Kettering cueist has pipped Trump to glory in two rating occasion finals this time period.
Wilson edged his fellow Englishman 10-8 on the Xi’an Grand Prix earlier than thrashing Trump 9-3 to win the Northern Eire Open title as effectively.
The duo reached the 2024 UK Championship semi-finals with victories over Michael Holt and Zhang Anda respectively.
Trump was particularly spectacular throughout his outing with Zhang, compiling 4 century breaks and accumulating an unanswered sequence of 527 factors.
If they will replicate their finest once more, it guarantees to be a barnstorming UK Championship affair.
2024 UK Championship draw and schedule
Spherical 1 (bo11)
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-6 Barry Hawkins
Xiao Guodong 4-6 David Gilbert
Shaun Murphy 6-5 Zhao Xintong
Ding Junhui 6-5 Robert Milkins
Mark Selby 4-6 Jack Lisowski
Ali Carter 6-4 Ryan Day
Si Jiahui 4-6 Wu Yize
Mark Allen 6-4 Jackson Web page
Judd Trump 6-3 Neil Robertson
John Higgins 6-0 He Guoqiang
Zhang Anda 6-3 Lei Peifan
Mark Williams 5-6 Stuart Bingham
Luca Brecel 5-6 Jak Jones
Gary Wilson 1-6 Michael Holt
Chris Wakelin 6-4 Matthew Selt
Kyren Wilson 6-0 Stephen Maguire
Spherical 2 (bo11)
Barry Hawkins 6-5 David Gilbert
Shaun Murphy 6-5 Ding Junhui
Jack Lisowski 6-4 Ali Carter
Wu Yize 4-6 Mark Allen
Judd Trump 6-5 John Higgins
Zhang Anda 6-5 Stuart Bingham
Jak Jones 5-6 Michael Holt
Chris Wakelin 2-6 Kyren Wilson
Quarter-Finals (bo11)
Barry Hawkins 6-2 Shaun Murphy
Jack Lisowski 3-6 Mark Allen
Judd Trump 6-2 Zhang Anda
Michael Holt 3-6 Kyren Wilson
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Occasions in UTC
Barry Hawkins vs Mark Allen
Saturday, Nov. thirtieth – 7pm
Judd Trump vs Kyren Wilson
Saturday, Nov. thirtieth – 1pm
Remaining (bo19)
The match will happen on Sunday, Dec 1.
Featured picture credit score: WST
