The 2024 Wuhan Open draw is down to its final eight contenders with the quarter-finals set to take place on Thursday in China.
Half of the remaining players are Chinese, so there is a good chance that there will be some home interest come the end of the week’s play.
But the world number one lingers ominously and remains the favourite to collect the ยฃ140,000 top prize on Saturday.
Let’s take a look at the four quarter-finals in the Wuhan Open draw.
Judd Trump vs Chris Wakelin
Judd Trump is participating in his 14th tournament of the 2024 calendar year, and he has reached the quarter-finals or better every single time.
That level of consistency has rarely been seen in the sport, and the Englishman remains on course to land a fifth piece of silverware since January.
Two of those have already come this season – the Shanghai Masters invitational followed by the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in Riyadh.
The latter success saw Trump return to the world number one position, and he is every bit worthy of that status at present.
Chris Wakelin represents the next challenge to overcome, his countryman having produced a remarkable performance to beat Ding Junhui in the last 16 on Wednesday.
Wakelin compiled a hat-trick of century breaks – made consecutively – en route to a 5-3 victory and a second last-eight appearance in a ranking event this term.
The stats are not in the 32 year-old’s favour when it comes to playing Trump, though, with Wakelin losing all 13 previous meetings on the main tour.
Zhang Anda vs Si Jiahui
The match between Zhang Anda and Si Jiahui will ensure that there’ll be at least one Chinese cueist represented at the semi-final stage.
Zhang fought back from 3-0 and 4-2 down to end the aspirations of Mark Joyce, the amateur top-up who was a late replacement in this tournament for Ronnie O’Sullivan.
It was an extremely dramatic climax with last year’s International Championship winner prevailing in the deciding frame on a respotted black.
Si enjoyed a more comfortable time of it and contributed three tons during his 5-2 defeat of Duane Jones.
Zhang and Si have crossed paths on three occasions in the past on the World Snooker Tour, and somewhat surprisingly the former has enjoyed the upper hand each time.
Si has arguably struggled in the past at times against slower and more methodical players, which could explain the poor head-to-head record.
The 22 year-old will have to find a way to negotiate that kind of obstacle if he’s to further his development and challenge for trophies on a more regular basis.
Jack Lisowski vs Long Zehuang
There’s no doubting the fact that Jack Lisowski has been playing the best snooker of the 2024 Wuhan Open so far.
The 33 year-old added Wu Yize to his recent list of easy conquests, thrashing the English Open runner-up with a whitewash scoreline.
Lisowski has lost just two frames this week – compiling five centuries and ten more half-century breaks in the process.
Whether he can sustain that level and ultimately challenge to finally win that elusive ranking title is the obvious big question.
Lisowski will be the favourite against local lad Long Zehuang in the quarter-finals, but Long has impressed too as he hunts down a top 64 ranking for the first time in his career.
Shaun Murphy vs Xiao Guodong
Shaun Murphy’s 5-4 defeat of Ali Carter in the last round means that, among those left in the 2024 Wuhan Open draw, only Judd Trump has safeguarded his spot in the upcoming Champion of Champions.
A former winner of that prestigious invitational, Murphy would love to get his hands on this week’s trophy and simultaneously seal a ticket to Bolton too.
The Magician, a runner-up in Shanghai during the summer, plays Xiao Guodong for a berth in the semi-finals.
Xiao followed up his standout success over world champion Kyren Wilson in the last 32 by taking the scalp of Barry Hawkins.
It has been a solid season so far for the 35 year-old, who will feature in the quarter-finals for the second time from the five ranking events he’s played in.
Xiao lost to Murphy at same stage of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters last month, but he has held his own against the former world champion overall with their head-to-head record evenly matched.
2024 Wuhan Open schedule
Quarter-Finals (bo9)
7am UTC+1
Jack Lisowski vs Long Zehuang
Shaun Murphy vs Xiao Guodong
12:30pm UTC+1
Judd Trump vs Chris Wakelin
Zhang Anda vs Si Jiahui
Click here to view the full Wuhan Open draw
(snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
Lisowski peaked too soon unfortunately.
It’s worth noting that Wakelin’s three centuries in a row were all total clearances. Would be interesting how often this has been achieved? I would say less than 5 times.
There was some research and discussion on that topic on X. It seems the only other possible time it happened was Zhou Yuelong against Dominic Dale in the 2020 CLS. But it’s inconclusive from the data available. So Wakelin might be the first.