The 2 semi-finals within the 2023 Scottish Open happen on Saturday on the Meadowbank Sports activities Centre in Edinburgh.

Simply two extra victories are required as a way to seize the Stephen Hendry Trophy and the £80,000 winner’s cheque.

The defending champion and a house legend are in reverse sides of the draw, with a pair of gamers hoping to make their large breakthroughs additionally within the hunt for glory.

Let’s check out each ties within the Scottish Open semi-finals.

Gary Wilson vs Zhou Yuelong

Saturday, 1pm UTC

Reigning champion Gary Wilson was maybe lucky to emerge from a few of his early-round encounters this week.

The Englishman wanted deciding frames to settle his first three battles, however since then he has misplaced only one body.

On Friday, Wilson thrashed Chris Wakelin 5-0, making breaks of 118, 96, 82, and 68(x2) within the course of.

It had been a disappointing 2023/24 marketing campaign earlier than Scotland, however the 38 year-old is now assured a spot on the World Grand Prix subsequent month.

Wilson has risen to thirty second on the provisional one-year rankings, and each participant behind him on the checklist is now out of the Scottish Open.

Zhou Yuelong would be the Tyneside Terror’s opponent within the final 4 after the Chinese language cueist denied Stuart Bingham in a decider.

Zhou had gave the impression to be coasting when he orchestrated a 4-1 benefit, however the former world champion fought again to pressure a remaining body.

A well timed contribution of 70 from Zhou lastly noticed him transfer previous the profitable submit, although.

Zhou and Wilson have performed one another a handful of instances, with the latter having fun with the superior head-to-head document.

Nonetheless, most of these clashes had been brief affairs, and the one earlier best-of-11 fixture that they performed was on the identical stage of the 2020 European Masters.

On that day, Zhou edged a dramatic showdown 6-5.

Noppon Saengkham vs John Higgins

Saturday, 7pm UTC

The night bout on semi-finals day on the Scottish Open will characteristic house favorite John Higgins.

Higgins is the one member of the highest 16 left within the event, and though he would by no means admit it publicly, he should quietly fancy his probabilities from right here.

The Wizard of Wishaw has twice come inside a victory of getting his palms on the Stephen Hendry Trophy – in 2016 and once more in 2021 when he misplaced to Marco Fu and Luca Brecel within the respective finals.

To achieve the identical stage this 12 months, Higgins will first have to beat Noppon Saengkham.

It has been a season of consistency for the favored Thai, and he has firmly established himself as a member of the world’s high 32.

But like Zhou within the high half of the draw, Saengkham could have aspirations of etching his identify onto rating silverware for the primary time.

This run represents the 31 year-old’s fifth to a rating semi-final, and he has misplaced all the earlier 4.

Saengkham has crushed Higgins 4 instances from their ten prior conferences together with at this event in 2020, albeit at a distinct venue.

The duo’s highest-profile duel materialised in final 12 months’s World Championship, a second-round match in Sheffield that Higgins received 13-7.

Scottish Open draw

Spherical of 128 (bo7)

Gary Wilson 4-3 Elliott Slessor
Xing Zihao 4-3 Fergal O’Brien
Joe O’Connor 4-0 Andy Lee
Scott Donaldson 4-3 Ashley Hugill
Hossein Vafaei 3-4 Daniel Wells
Rory Thor 4-1 Graeme Dott
Ryan Day 4-2 Jiang Jun
Ashley Carty 4-2 Andres Petrov

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-2 Ma Hailong
Chris Wakelin 4-2 Mark Joyce
Yuan Sijun 4-0 Muhammad Asif
Mark Williams 3-4 Sam Craigie
Robbie Williams 4-1 Rod Lawler
David Gilbert 4-3 Jak Jones
Jordan Brown 4-2 Adam Duffy
Kyren Wilson 4-2 Mostafa Dorgham

Mark Allen 2-4 Jamie Jones
Dominic Dale 4-1 Ross Muir
Jimmy Robertson 4-2 Amaan Iqbal
Jimmy White 4-3 Duane Jones
Robert Milkins 0-4 Mark Davis
Andrew Higginson 4-3 Allan Taylor
Zhou Yuelong 4-0 Anthony Hamilton
Martin Gould 4-2 Reanne Evans

Manasawain Phetmalaikuk 4-2 Ben Woollaston
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Michael White
Aaron Hill 4-1 Ken Doherty
Jack Lisowski 4-0 Mohamed Ibrahim
Julien Leclercq 4-0 Baipat Siripaporn
Si Jiahui 4-3 Tian Pengfei
Zhang Anda 4-2 Andy Hicks
Judd Trump 4-0 Sydney Wilson

Liam Graham w/o Ronnie O’Sullivan
Ben Mertens 4-0 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Sanderson Lam 4-3 Fan Zhengyi
Cao Yupeng 4-2 David Lilley
Barry Hawkins 3-4 Pang Junxu
Xu Si 4-0 Mink Nutcharut
Anthony McGill 4-0 Ryan Thomerson
Oliver Traces 4-0 John Astley

Lukas Kleckers 4-1 Stuart Carrington
Noppon Saengkham 4-0 Rebecca Kenna
Jack Borwick 1-4 Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Ali Carter 4-3 Lengthy Zehuang
Alfie Burden 4-1 Ian Burns
Matthew Selt 4-1 Dylan Emery
Matthew Stevens 4-0 Victory Sarkis
Mark Selby 4-2 Sean O’Sullivan

Shaun Murphy 1-4 Liu Hongyu
Zak Surety 4-1 Liam Pullen
Lyu Haotian 4-2 Joe Perry
Jackson Web page 4-1 Himanshu Jain
John Higgins 4-0 Oliver Brown
He Guoqiang 4-0 Peng Yisong
Ricky Walden 4-3 Hammad Miah
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-0 Wu Yize

Liam Highfield 4-0 Dean Younger
Tom Ford 4-1 Louis Heathcote
Jenson Kendrick 4-2 Anton Kazakov
Ding Junhui 4-0 David Grace
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 Andrew Pagett
Jamie Clarke 4-2 Xiao Guodong
James Cahill 4-3 Stan Moody
Luca Brecel 4-0 Iulian Boiko

Spherical of 64 (bo7)

Gary Wilson 4-3 Xing Zihao
Joe O’Connor 4-1 Scott Donaldson
Daniel Wells 3-4 Rory Thor
Ryan Day 3-4 Ashley Carty
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 2-4 Chris Wakelin
Yuan Sijun 0-4 Sam Craigie
Robbie Williams 3-4 David Gilbert
Jordan Brown 0-4 Kyren Wilson

Jamie Jones 3-4 Dominic Dale
Jimmy Robertson 3-4 Jimmy White
Mark Davis 1-4 Andrew Higginson
Zhou Yuelong w/o Martin Gould
Manasawin Phetmalaikul 0-4 Stuart Bingham
Aaron Hill 4-1 Jack Lisowski
Julien Leclercq 2-4 Si Jiahui
Zhang Anda 4-2 Judd Trump

Liam Graham 4-2 Ben Mertens
Sanderson Lam 4-1 Cao Yupeng
Pang Junxu 4-1 Xu Si
Anthony McGill 4-2 Oliver Traces
Lukas Kleckers 1-4 Noppon Saengkham
Ishpreet Singh Chadha 3-4 Ali Carter
Alfie Burden 1-4 Matthew Selt
Matthew Stevens 3-4 Mark Selby

Liu Hongyu 4-0 Zak Surety
Lyu Haotian 4-0 Jackson Web page
John Higgins 4-1 He Guoqiang
Ricky Walden 4-3 Alexander Ursenbacher
Liam Highfield 2-4 Tom Ford
Jenson Kendrick 1-4 Ding Junhui
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 Jamie Clarke
James Cahill 3-4 Luca Brecel

Spherical of 32 (bo7)

Gary Wilson 4-3 Joe O’Connor
Rory Thor 4-3 Ashley Carty
Chris Wakelin 4-0 Sam Craigie
David Gilbert 3-4 Kyren Wilson
Dominic Dale 4-1 Jimmy White
Andrew Higginson 2-4 Zhou Yuelong
Stuart Bingham 4-2 Aaron Hill
Si Jiahui 2-4 Zhang Anda

Liam Graham 3-4 Sanderson Lam
Pang Junxu 2-4 Anthony McGill
Noppon Saengkham 4-2 Ali Carter
Matthew Selt 4-3 Mark Selby
Liu Hongyu 2-4 Lyu Haotian
John Higgins 4-3 Ricky Walden
Tom Ford 3-4 Ding Junhui
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 Luca Brecel

Spherical of 16 (bo7)

Gary Wilson 4-1 Rory Thor
Chris Wakelin 4-2 Kyren Wilson
Dominic Dale 0-4 Zhou Yuelong
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Zhang Anda

Sanderson Lam 4-1 Anthony McGill
Noppon Saengkham 4-3 Matthew Selt
Lyu Haotian 2-4 John Higgins
Tom Ford 4-2 Martin O’Donnell

Quarter-Finals (bo9)

Gary Wilson 5-0 Chris Wakelin
Zhou Yuelong 5-4 Stuart Bingham

Sanderson Lam 3-5 Noppon Saengkham
John Higgins 5-3 Tom Ford

Semi-Finals (bo11)

Matches to be performed on Saturday, Dec 16

Gary Wilson vs Zhou Yuelong (1pm UTC)

Noppon Saengkham vs John Higgins (7pm UTC)

Remaining (bo17)

Match to be performed on Sunday, Dec 17

Featured picture credit score: WST