The final of the inaugural WSF Championship will take place on Saturday between Adam Stefanow and Luo Honghao at the Dolmen Hotel in Malta.
The Poland player and Chinese competitor both emerged from tight semi-final encounters on Friday in deciding frame thrillers to set up the showdown in which a two-year card to compete on the professional Main Tour will be at stake.
Stefanow, who earlier on Friday knocked out WSF Seniors champion Igor Figueiredo, fought back brilliantly from 3-1 down to beat Kristjan Helgason while 18 year-old Luo reversed a 3-2 deficit to overcome Kacper Filipiak in another nail-biter.
While this will represent a maiden appearance in the final of a major international amateur event for Stefanow, Luo will be able to call upon his experience in last year’s IBSF World Under-21 Championship, when he was agonisingly denied in a decider by compatriot Fan Zhengyi in Beijing.
The final of the WSF Championship will take place over the best of 11 frames, a short format considering what is on the line for the pair.
If it wasn’t already, it’s sure to be a nerve-jangling affair with a potentially lucrative ticket onto the pro circuit on offer, as well as the honour of being the first ever WSF Championship winner.
“It’s just a crazy story really,” explained Stefanów. “I’m not supposed to even be here, but I had a good run in the European Championships last month Sofia, Bulgaria and I got a wildcard to play.
“The last three years have been really hard as I have been living in Sheffield, England and working full time in a restaurant as well as playing snooker full-time.
“I have been very dedicated but I couldn’t do both anymore and recently came back to Poland after receiving a good job offer.
“So I came into the tournament knowing that it could be my last chance and 3-1 down I thought it would be good to finish with a semi-final in a tournament like this one.
“But I said ok last tournament, keep trying, keep trying and now I am into the final. When I came back to Poland I thought that I am not good enough to be on the main tour, but now tomorrow I am playing a match to be there so it is crazy.”
The final takes place at 11am local time and will be streamed live here.
