Mark Selby v Zhou Yuelong live stream | English Open 2025 Semi-Final preview
Selby and Zhou eye a place in the English Open final (Credit: Imagechina Limited)
Mark Selby goes head to head with Zhou Yuelong on Saturday in the first semi-final of the 2025 English Open in Brentwood.
The opening last-four clash of the season’s first Home Nations event pits the four-time World champion against the three-time ranking finalist.
Selby is just two wins away from completing a hat-trick of English Open titles, having also lifted the Steve Davis Trophy in 2019 and 2022.
The Jester would also move level with Judd Trump by landing a sixth Home Nations crown, as well as his 25th ranking event success.
Selby beat Liam Highfield, Scottish Open champion Lei Peifan and 2024 English Open runner-up Wu Yize earlier in the week for the loss of just three frames.
He then edged out Jackson Page 5-4 in the quarter-finals, hitting a break of 131 in the decider to progress to his 67th ranking semi-final.
It is also his eighth last-four appearance in the Home Nations Series, with his seven previous such matches yielding five victories.
Meanwhile, Zhou has enjoyed a welcome return to form this week, after a difficult 2024-25 season in which he failed to progress beyond the last 16 of any ranking event.
The Chinese, who recently started working with coach Steve Feeney, dropped just four frames as he defeated Xu Si, three-time World champion Mark Williams and four-time ranking event winner Barry Hawkins.
He then recovered from 4-2 down to beat Luca Brecel after a 52-minute-long decider and reach his seventh ranking semi-final, and third in the Home Nations.
It is his first such appearance since the 2023 Scottish Open, when he notoriously lost 6-5 to eventual champion Gary Wilson, who recovered from 5-3 down and needing three snookers in the decider to prevail on the final black.
Zhou actually leads the head-to-head with Selby 4-2, though three of those victories came in either the Championship League or WST Pro Series, while the Jester was a 5-2 winner when they collided in the quarter-finals of this event five years ago.
A showdown with either former UK and Masters champion Mark Allen or 2024 Crucible runner-up Jak Jones awaits the winner of this clash in Sunday’s final.
The match breaks off at 1pm BST on Saturday and will be contested over the best of 11 frames at the Brentwood Centre.
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