The opening semi-final of the International Championship will be played out on Friday when two Chinese stars meet for a spot in what would be a home final when the world champion Zhao Xintong takes on Wu Yize.
We are up to the best of 17 frames across two sessions of play for this last four clash with the reward for the winner being a day off and then a crack at the final. There are other things at stake too in terms of rankings so this is a big match.
Wu Yize
Wu Yize is going in search of a spot in a third ranking event final here having made two of them last season and he could barely be in better form going into the semi-final. He has won his last 12 frames in this tournament and he hasn’t beaten a couple of also-rans in that time, he has won six straight against Judd Trump and then another six in a row against Barry Hawkins and you don’t do that if you are not playing excellent snooker so the outsider is entitled to fancy his chances here.
The one question mark over Wu Yize is his record in matches with more than one session isn’t necessarily the best. The score had some gloss put on it in the final of the English Open last season and he fluffed his lines as a favourite in the Scottish Open while the World Championship wasn’t convincing either so he has a bit of a point to prove. The flip side of that is he is the outsider here but then he is the one playing to get into the top 16 so his form could go either way here.
Zhao Xintong
The world champion Zhao Xintong is back in the semi-final of a ranking tournament for the first time since he won the world title in Sheffield and he will be looking to convert this position into a victory. He is now the favourite to win the event and you can see why because generally the longer a format the better the chance of the better player and on paper at least he would represent the best player left in the competition heading into the semi-finals in terms of talent and recent big results.
Xintong is one of those players for whom the longer format is definitely better. We saw that at the World Championship where he took care of Ronnie O’Sullivan with a session to spare not to mention having plenty in hand in beating Mark Williams in the final. He survived a cracking match with Mark Selby in the previous round after walloping Si Jiahui in the round prior to that. He looks to be coming to the boil nicely and will fancy his chances here.
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Head-to-head
These two compatriots have only met once in their career, largely because of the suspension of Zhao Xintong but it was the world champion who won that match. That came in the German Masters in 2023 when the pair met in the opening round. Xintong won that match 5-3 so this will be the first time that the two have faced each other in their homeland, their first battle over the best of 17 frames and the first time they have collided in a semi-final so how much history dictates anything remains to be seen.
Betting
I do have a big issue with Wu Yize in these longer matches. He hasn’t yet mastered how to pace himself in them and often gets off to a slow start and has to play catch up. That is fine against lesser players but against the world champion if you let Zhao Xintong get in front pegging him back isn’t easy. He has a very good record in two session matches. He won all three finals over multiple sessions that he has played and he played a number of them in the World Championship.
That all makes me think that Zhao Xintong will win this match. It might not be a great thing that Wu Yize has won his last 12 frames in the tournament because those kind of runs revert to the mean in the end and he might well lose a run of frames here. There is a natural rhythm to Xintong which he can bring out over the longer format whereas it is all much harder work for Wu hence why his two-session match record has room for improvement. I’ll take Zhao to win this and win it no worse than 9-7.
Tips
Back Z.Xintong (-1.5 frames) to beat W.Yize for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back him here:
