John Higgins v Gary Wilson live stream | Welsh Open Semi-Final preview
John Higgins looks to maintain his perfect Welsh Open semi-final record when he faces Gary Wilson on Saturday.
A showdown with Martin O’Donnell in Sunday’s final awaits the winner of the second last-four encounter at Venue Cymru in Llandudno.
The Londoner overcame Elliot Slessor 6-5 in a nail-biting battle of the left-handers earlier today, and neutrals will be hoping for a similarly dramatic clash here.
Five-time champion Higgins is appearing in his eighth Welsh Open semi-final – and his 84th in a ranking event.
It is also his fifth semi-final of the season, in which he is now targeting his first final and ranking silverware since the 2021 Players Championship.
The Scotsman dropped just two frames across his victories over Mohamed Ibrahim, Tian Pengfei and Ryan Day before battling from 3-1 down to deny Matthew Selt 4-3, while he also enjoyed a commanding 5-2 win over Mark Allen.
Although their last four encounters have all come in the Championship League, Higgins has won each of the last 11 frames he has played against Wilson, and he will want to continue in a similarly dominant vein here.
However, the two-time Scottish Open champion will not roll over in his fourth Home Nations semi-final. Ironically, the other came in this event in 2018, with Higgins prevailing 6-2 on the way to landing his fifth crown.
Wilson has won each of the last 10 frames he has played following successive whitewashes of Anthony McGill and reigning champion Robert Milkins, while he also defeated Iulian Boiko and Jack Lisowski earlier in the week.
The only previous time the world number 16 progressed beyond the quarter-finals of a ranking event this season, he went on to win the title in Edinburgh – something he hopes will prove a positive omen this time around.
His sole victory over Higgins in seven attempts also came at a Home Nations event as he prevailed 4-3 from 4-1 down in the last 32 of the 2017 Northern Ireland Open.
Whoever prevails here will be the favourite to lift the Ray Reardon trophy on Sunday evening, so we can expect a tightly contested battle at Venue Cymru in Llandudno.
Play gets under way at 7pm GMT on Saturday and will be contested over the best of 11 frames.
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