The 2025 Wuhan Open final will be contested between Xiao Guodong and Gary Wilson on Saturday at the Optics Valley Gymnasium.
Both players emerged from tough semi-final ties on paper to extend their impressive runs in the tournament as they each bid to add to their ranking title tally.
Xiao continued his brilliant defence of the maiden ranking title he claimed a year ago with a 6-3 victory over Mark Williams.
The reigning champion and top seed started slowly and was 3-2 behind but grew in confidence as the match progressed and eventually reeled off the concluding four frames.
Wilson similarly found himself in a chasing position early on in his last-four clash with Mark Allen, trailing the Northern Irishman 2-1.
But the 40 year-old took an important fourth frame to tie things up at the mid-session interval and subsequently dominated the affair upon the resumption.
Wilson reeled off runs of 113, 78, and 70 to move 5-2 in front before getting over the line in the eighth frame.
It sets up an intriguing final between two players who, despite years of initially being classified as journeymen, have established themselves in recent times among the best in the world.
Wilson will feature in a sixth ranking event final, with the Englishman chasing a fourth title and a first outside the Home Nations Series.
Xiao remains on course for a second ranking success at the very same tournament where he managed to land his first after 17 years as a professional player.
Only four players in snooker history have recorded their first and second ranking glories at the same event, and one of those is playing in the Wuhan Open final.
Wilson backed up his maiden title at the 2022 Scottish Open by successfully defending the Stephen Hendry Trophy a year on in 2023.
Others to achieve the feat were Mark Allen at the World Open more than a decade ago and John Parrott way back in 1989 and 1990 at the European Open.
Ray Reardon also technically did this through his victories in the first two World Championships that were attributed ranking status.
Xiao and Wilson have encountered each other only six times on the World Snooker Tour with half of those meetings coming in the best-of-five Championship League.
In fact, they have never crossed paths in a match longer than seven frames with Xiao boasting a 4-2 head-to-head advantage from their prior ties overall.
The Wuhan Open final will be a much longer showdown with a possible 19 frames on the agenda for Saturday’s play and a whopping £140,000 up for grabs for the winner.
For Xiao, triumphing would result in him leapfrogging his way into the top eight of the official world rankings list for the first time in his career.
By reaching the title-deciding encounter, Wilson has already safeguarded his return to the top 16.
The three-time ranking event winner would advance further to 13th on the rolling two-year rankings if he were to conclude his strong week – in which he has already beaten the likes of Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy – with the silverware in his hands.
The 2025 Wuhan Open final takes place on Saturday over two sessions at 7am and 12:30pm UTC+1 (BST)
2025 Wuhan Open draw
Round of 16 (bo9)
Xiao Guodong 5-2 Matthew Selt
Barry Hawkins 0-5 Stan Moody
Mark Williams 5-3 Mark Selby
Zhang Anda 5-4 Aaron Hill
Judd Trump 4-5 Gary Wilson
Tom Ford 1-5 John Higgins
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 1-5 Mark Allen
Si Jiahui 5-2 Stephen Maguire
Quarter-Finals (bo9)
Xiao Guodong 5-2 Stan Moody
Mark Williams 5-1 Zhang Anda
Gary Wilson 5-3 John Higgins
Mark Allen 5-3 Si Jiahui
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Xiao Guodong 6-3 Mark Williams
Gary Wilson 6-2 Mark Allen
Final (bo19)
Xiao Guodong vs Gary Wilson
Saturday, 7am and 12:30pm UTC+1 (BST)
Click here to view the full updated draw (snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
Xiao in his fourth ranking final.