Wu Yize will find out who his opponent in the International Championship final will be when the second semi-final takes place on Saturday and he is guaranteed to be facing a Scot as John Higgins faces off against Stephen Maguire.
These two men are no stranger to playing in big matches and make it through to major finals and one of them will get the right to play for the title and the significant first prize which comes with it should they get to nine frames here.
John Higgins
At the beginning of the week you wouldn’t have said that John Higgins would have been an automatic pick of make it through to the last four but he has navigated his way through relatively safely, with the exception of a battle against Scott Donaldson in the last 16. His form coming into the tournament was patchy at best and he was making the negative noises he has often made recently when things haven’t been going well, but there has been no signs of decline this week.
Higgins saw off Shaun Murphy in the quarter final which was a significant result for him and having had the day off to freshen up and get ready to go again, you would imagine that he is going to be pretty tough to beat here with his all-round game. Higgins will move into the top 16 in the one-year ranking list if he can win this match which would open up more events for him in the second half of the season so there is a fair bit at stake for the veteran in this one.
Stephen Maguire
Stephen Maguire has already won one title this season and he is a win away from the chance of playing for another one. He would not only do that but he would consolidate his position in the better half of the one-year rankings which is probably more significant to him as he is currently out of the top 16 in the world and the more playing opportunities he can get to better his standing the better it will be for him and his chances of avoiding World Championship qualifying later in the year.
Maguire has already seen off one former champion this week in Kyren Wilson and he has another in his sights here. His emphatic 6-1 win over Zak Surety in the quarter final shows that Maguire is still hitting the ball well and there is no reason why he shouldn’t be very confident coming into this match. If there is a criticism of Maguire so far this week it is that his very best scoring hasn’t come to the party yet. Now would be a brilliant time for it to appear.
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Head-to-head
These two friends have met on 22 previous occasions and surprisingly it is Stephen Maguire who has a 12-10 edge in those past battles. When you look at the frame count and see that he is only 106-105 ahead though it tells us that generally Higgins wins will and Maguire wins the tighter matches. This will be their first meeting in six years though and only the second time they will face each other in a semi-final. Higgins won the first in the 2007 World Championship. The pair have met four best of 17 matches with Higgins 3-1 up in those. It will be their first meeting in the International Championship.
Betting
I would expect John Higgins to come through here but at the same time I would be surprised if Stephen Maguire has come this far to go down without a fight so I fancy we will see a fairly tight semi-final, especially if Maguire can find that extra gear on his scoring which we know he has in him. Both of these men have played enough multi-session matches to know that they don’t need to panic and can build their way into the match and set it up for the second session where I expect things to be quite tight.
You would imagine that Higgins will just about have enough when push comes to shove but he has been guilty of letting some leads slip in the latter part of his career and the one thing about Maguire is he rarely ever gives in and knows when he is beaten. You can get a fair price on over 14.5 frames here, which means we are looking for 9-6 or closer either way for that to land. On the balance of their battles in the past and what we’ve seen this week, I think that is the likely end outcome.
Tips
Back Over 14.5 frames for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Betway
