Barry Hawkins v Yan Bingtao live stream | Players Championship 2022 preview
Hawkins has reached two finals this season (Adam Davy/PA Wire/PA Images)
Barry Hawkins and Yan Bingtao vie for a place in the Players Championship semi-finals in Wolverhampton on Thursday.
The players ranked 11th and 13th in the world respectively go head to head at Aldersley Leisure Village for the right to face Ricky Walden in the last four.
Hawkins is targeting a second successive semi-final in the elite 16-man event; Ronnie O’Sullivan narrowly denying him a place in the showpiece 12 months ago.
Despite defeat by Yuan SiJun in the Turkish Masters qualifiers last week, the Hawk is in fine fettle having reached the Masters final as well as the last four of the UK Championship.
He was thrashed 6-1 by eventual winner Zhao Xintong in the latter, but avenged that defeat on Tuesday; making five breaks over 50 in a 6-3 triumph.
Along with O’Sullivan and John Higgins, Hawkins in one of three former champions remaining in the tournament; the Kent cueist donning the crown after beating Gerard Greene 4-0 in the 2014 final.
Meanwhile, Yan resumes his quest to go one step better after finishing runner-up to Judd Trump two years ago.
The former Masters champion produced one of the more impressive performances of the opening round; hitting three centuries and a break of 80 during his 6-4 victory over David Gilbert.
Although, the Tiger was given a scare as the Championship League winner rallied from 5-1 down to only trail 5-4.
Nevertheless, recent German Masters runner-up Yan is now targeting a fourth semi-final appearance of the season, having also reached the last four at the Northern Ireland Open and Champion of Champions.
Play gets underway at 1pm GMT on Thursday with the match contested over the best of 11 frames at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton.