2024 Scottish Open: quarter-finals draw, preview, and schedule

December 13, 2024

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The 2024 Scottish Open is nearing its climax with the quarter-finals scheduled for Friday on the Meadowbank Sports activities Centre in Edinburgh.

An attention-grabbing collection of gamers stay within the hunt for glory, the Stephen Hendry Trophy, and the £100,000 prime prize.

There are two former champions, final 12 months’s overwhelmed finalist, and two rating occasion winners from this season already among the many remaining octet.

Let’s check out all 4 upcoming matches within the 2024 Scottish Open quarter-finals.

Tom Ford vs Lei Peifan

The Snooker Shoot Out stays a controversial event for its standing as a rating occasion, however how usually have we seen it rework a participant’s profession?

The likes of Barry Hawkins, Martin Gould, Hossein Vafaei, and Chris Wakelin can level to their Shoot Out triumphs as launchpads for higher issues on the primary tour.

Tom Ford is perhaps the newest title so as to add to that listing after the Englishman emerged with the 2024 title final Saturday in Leicester.

Ford, who had received solely two video games all season previous to the Shoot Out, has taken the boldness from touchdown a maiden full rating title into this week’s motion in Scotland.

The 41 year-old would be the favorite when he takes on qualifier Lei Peifan, however he’ll should carry out at his greatest judging by the Chinese language competitor’s outcomes this week.

Lei turned a rating occasion quarter-finalist for the primary time with spectacular wins over Vafaei, Shaun Murphy, and Stuart Bingham.

Apparently, the 21 year-old has already overwhelmed Ford twice this season.

Noppon Saengkham vs Mark Allen

Final 12 months’s Scottish Open runner-up challenges the 2018 champion in arguably the tie of the quarter-finals this 12 months.

Saengkham backed up his spectacular defeat of Mark Selby within the final 32 with an identical 4-2 ousting of Ali Carter on Thursday.

Allen, in the meantime, edged Jack Lisowski in a 4-3 thriller to maintain his hopes of touchdown the final rating piece of silverware of the calendar 12 months.

The Northern Irishman has confronted Saengkham six occasions up to now, profitable on 4 events.

The latter might do with going even additional on this occasion as he provisionally ranks outdoors the highest 32 on the one-year rankings.

Solely the highest 32 shall be invited to the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong, and there aren’t many alternatives left to make an affect on that entrance.

Wu Yize vs Chris Wakelin

Wu Yize and Chris Wakelin are good examples of gamers who’ve been making a extra frequent impression on the enterprise finish of competitions.

Wu was a semi-finalist in final week’s Shoot Out and he simply missed out on a maiden rating title within the first of this time period’s Residence Nations collection occasions, the English Open.

Wakelin has been on a relentless upward trajectory since profitable the Shoot Out at first of 2023.

By reaching the Worldwide Championship ultimate final month, the 32 year-old deservedly broke into the highest 16 of the world rankings for the primary time.

The best way issues are going, it in all probability received’t be too lengthy till Wu, whose provisional end-of-season rating is as much as quantity 23, joins him in that elite bracket.

Wakelin and Wu have confronted one another twice earlier than, sharing one victory apiece.

Scottish Open quarter-finals — Luca Brecel received the Scottish Open in 2021. Picture credit score: WST

Luca Brecel vs Xiao Guodong

There have been real issues that Luca Brecel might finish this season with a rating outdoors the highest 64, subsequently dropping his skilled tour card.

However a lot of these fears have been allayed because of his run to the quarter-finals within the 2024 Scottish Open draw.

Brecel dug deep to claw again a 3-1 deficit and beat Ding Junhui within the final 16 on Thursday to safeguard a last-eight look in a rating occasion for less than the second time since his World Championship success in Could final 12 months.

Subsequent up for the previous Scottish Open champion is one other confirmed Chinese language rating occasion winner from this marketing campaign in Xiao Guodong.

Xiao has been in unimaginable type all season, memorably profitable the Wuhan Open for a maiden rating success earlier than additionally reaching the ultimate of the Champion of Champions invitational.

The 35 year-old leads his head-to-head with Brecel 3-2 and, regardless of his opponent’s greater official rating, will in all probability begin this affair because the favorite.