The 2025 Shanghai Masters final will be contested between Kyren Wilson and Ali Carter at the Luwan Gymnasium on Sunday.
The pair of Englishmen emerged from their semi-final affairs to move to within one more victory of the £210,000 top prize in China.
On Friday, Carter continued his remarkable run in the prestigious invitational event by winning the last four frames to beat Mark Selby 10-8.
As the world number 17 at the cut-off point when invitations from the world rankings list were set, Carter wasn’t even supposed to be in this edition of the tournament.
But Mark Allen’s withdrawal gifted the Captain an opportunity that he has fully seized up until now.
His triumph over Selby in the last four saw him overturn an 8-6 deficit, which represented the third time in as many games that he had to fight back from behind at the death.
Carter has won the Shanghai Masters before, way back in 2010 when the event was previously staged as a ranking event.
It was already a pretty big tournament, but its prestige has been elevated significantly in recent years since its transition to an invitational competition.
Success on Sunday, therefore, would present former World Championship and Masters finalist Carter with his biggest title at the age of 46.
Standing in his way will be Wilson, who dominated the second session of his semi-final affair with Zhao Xintong on Saturday to prevail with a 10-5 scoreline.
In a battle between the two most recent Crucible champions, Zhao edged an entertaining and a high-scoring opening session.
But the home star’s advantage quickly evaporated as Wilson took all six frames from the evening’s play to advance to the Shanghai Masters final instead.
The world number two was one of the standout players of the 2024/25 campaign, winning an impressive tally of four ranking titles during his season as world champion.
There was disappointment in Sheffield as he bowed out of the running early on following an unexpected 10-9 reverse to Lei Peifan.
But Wilson has already immediately bounced back to begin the new term strongly, and the 33 year-old will certainly start this title-deciding battle as the favourite.
Like Carter, Wilson also etched his name onto the Shanghai Masters silverware under its previous guise as a ranking event.
Indeed, that was his memorable maiden triumph on the World Snooker Tour when he famously won nine matches to capture the 2015 Shanghai Masters crown.
In the years since and particularly in the last couple of seasons, Wilson has firmly established himself as one of the game’s leading contenders.
The Warrior has faced Carter 17 times in all competitions and boasts a narrow 9-8 superior head-to-head record overall.
Many of those clashes have transpired in the Championship League behind closed doors, however, with only three of their games played under the best-of-nine format or longer.
Their only two-session tie was at the Tour Championship a couple of years ago when Wilson orchestrated a routine 10-4 victory.
The 2025 Shanghai Masters final takes place on Sunday at 7am and 12:30pm UTC+1 (BST).
Shanghai Masters draw
Round of 24 (bo11)
Neil Robertson 6-2 Pang Junxu
Shaun Murphy 6-0 Han Fuyuan
Xiao Guodong 6-3 Lei Peifan
Ali Carter 6-1 Qiu Lei
Si Jiahui 6-4 Wang Xinbo
Barry Hawkins 6-4 Wu Yize
Zhang Anda 6-5 Yuan Sijun
Chris Wakelin 6-3 Zhou Jinhao
Round of 16 (bo11)
Judd Trump 6-2 Neil Robertson
Mark Selby 6-0 Shaun Murphy
John Higgins 4-6 Xiao Guodong
Mark Williams 5-6 Ali Carter
Kyren Wilson 6-5 Si Jiahui
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-5 Barry Hawkins
Ding Junhui 6-5 Zhang Anda
Zhao Xintong 6-2 Chris Wakelin
Quarter-Finals (bo11)
Judd Trump 4-6 Mark Selby
Xiao Guodong 5-6 Ali Carter
Kyren Wilson 6-3 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Ding Junhui 1-6 Zhao Xintong
Semi-Finals (bo19)
Mark Selby 8-10 Ali Carter
Kyren Wilson 10-5 Zhao Xintong
Final (bo21)
Ali Carter vs Kyren Wilson
Sunday, August 3rd – 7am and 12:30pm
Times in UTC+1 (BST)
Featured photo credit: WST
