British Open Snooker 2021 Day Six Preview and Order of Play: Last eight vie to reach the final

Jamie Shaw in British Open 21 August 2021

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Maximum man Ali Carter knocked out of the British Open

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Gary Wilson sets up Mark Williams showdown in the British Open final

Mark Williams is the new title favourite (Photo by George Wood/PA Images)

The eight remaining hopefuls lock horns at the 2021 British Open on Saturday for the right to reach the final in Leicester.

A thrilling week of quick-fire action at the Morningside Arena has already produced two maximum breaks and a whole host of upsets.

Four of the eight players left standing are bidding to claim their first ranking title, while just one is currently ranked inside the world’s top 16.

Mark Williams, who claimed this title back in 1997, has been typically relaxed this week, and despite bemoaning the table conditions, has cruised into the latter stages.

The three-time World Champion saw off Tian Pengfei, Dominic Dale and Liam Highfield, before punishing a costly missed black off the spot from Zhang Jiankang to eventually seal a 3-2 win on Friday.

The Welshman now comes up against a resurgent Ricky Walden – a three-time ranking event winner aiming to end a seven-year drought.

Walden, who was once a regular in the world’s top 16, is now ranked 31, but underlined his class with a 3-1 win over 147 hero John Higgins in the Last 32.

David Gilbert steps up his pursuit of back-to-back ranking titles with a clash against an in-form Gary Wilson.

An emotional Gilbert opened his account at the Championship League last week and has seemingly picked up from where he left off, dropping just one frame in his four matches so far.

Wilson has been similarly ruthless, winning his opening three matches without reply, before edging out Iran’s Hossein Vafaei with a superb 95 break in the deciding frame.

Two players hunting down their first ranking silverware go head-to-head as Zhou Yuelong faces Elliot Slessor.

Zhou has beaten two Leicester favourites – Tom Ford and Joe O’Connor – in deciding frames en route to this stage and is now into his first ranking Quarter-Final since last year’s UK Championship.

Giant-killer Slessor, meanwhile, has put a barren spell of form behind him to reach only his fourth career ranking Quarter-Final, defeating Judd Trump and Ali Carter along the way.

Former European Masters champion Jimmy Robertson aims to continue his ruthless vein of form when he comes up against China’s Lu Ning.

Hastings ace Robertson swept aside Stephen Maguire 3-0 on Friday with a century break to his name to reach only his fourth ranking Quarter-Final.

UK Championship semi-finalist Lu has flown largely under the radar so far but has rarely looked troubled in his victories over Igor Figueiredo, Martin Gould, Ben Hancorn and Lukas Kleckers for the combined loss of just three frames.

The action gets under way from 1pm BST, with Quarter-Final and Semi-Final matches to be contested over the best of seven frames.

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