Graeme Dott v Fan Zhengyi live stream | European Masters 2022 preview
Fan is appearing in his first ranking event semi-final
Fan Zhengyi looks to continue his fairytale European Masters run when he faces Graeme Dott in the semi-finals on Saturday.
The world number 80 is the lowest-ranked semi-finalist following another impressive week at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
Fan reached the German Masters quarter-finals last month, before eventually succumbing to Mark Allen at the Tempodrom in Berlin.
But the 21-year-old has gone one better four weeks on, taking out three ranking event winners along the way.
After going close to making a maximum – breaking down on 125 after missing the final brown – the former World Under-21s champion overcame Kyren Wilson in a deciding frame.
He then reeled off five successive frames from 3-0 down to defeat practise partner Yan Bingtao 5-3, before seeing off David Gilbert by the same scoreline in the quarter-finals to reach unchartered territory.
It is also territory that has not been too familiar to Dott in recent years.
This is the former World champion’s 21st career ranking event semi-final – winning 10 of his 20 previous such matches – but first since the 2020 World Grand Prix.
Seeded 17th for this event, Dott has slipped to 47th in the world rankings having only won six matches outside of the Championship League prior to this week.
But the Pocket Dynamo has enjoyed a timely upturn in fortunes in Milton Keynes; demonstrating his trademark tenacity and determination by prevailing in deciding frames against Mark Davis, Zhou Yuelong and Ryan Day.
Dott won his only previous meeting with Fan in professional competition, recording a 6-2 victory in the qualifying round for the 2019 International Championship.
The winner will set up a showdown with either Ronnie O’Sullivan or Liang Wenbo in Sunday’s final.
Play gets underway at 1pm GMT on Saturday with the match contested over the best of 11 frames at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.