Mark Allen and Zhou Yuelong reached the 2025 English Open final with hard-fought semi-final victories on Saturday in Brentwood.
Zhou first booked his spot in a fourth career ranking event final with a 6-3 victory over outright favourite Mark Selby, who was surprisingly well short of his best.
The latter was always chasing after losing the opening three frames of the contest, and his Chinese opponent won several crucial close frames to sustain his buffer.
Later in the day, it was yet another marathon effort from Allen who again needed all of his allotted frames to advance.
The Northern Irishman won the last four frames from 3-0 behind to beat Ding Junhui in the last 16 before repeating the trick from 4-0 behind against Elliot Slessor on Friday.
Trailing 5-3 to Jak Jones in Saturday evening’s semi-final, Allen reeled off the remaining three frames with runs of 68, 67, and 82.
It was the second game on the spin whereby the former world number one was forced to complete a victory post midnight.
Whether fatigue will play a part in the 2025 English Open final remains to be seen, although there will be some believing that Allen’s name is already on the Steve Davis Trophy given his trio of Houdini acts in the tournament so far.
The Pistol remains on course to land a 12th ranking crown and a first since his Players Championship success from the start of 2024.
Allen ended the 2023/24 campaign as the sport’s world number one, but an indifferent spell of form by his high standards saw him quickly plummet down the ladder.
With a lot more ranking points to come off his rolling two-year tally, the 39 year-old is even provisionally in danger of missing out on automatic qualification for the World Championship at the end of this term.
But the ยฃ45,000 in prize money and ranking points that he has already accumulated for getting this far will go a long way to alleviating those concerns.
Zhou, meanwhile, is back in a ranking event final for the first time since the 2022 Northern Ireland Open title-deciding affair.
Funnily enough, it was Allen who denied the 27 year-old the silverware on that occasion – the Antrim man lifting the Alex Higgins Trophy with a 9-4 triumph.
Around that time, Zhou had been becoming a more regular presence at the business end of tournaments and was spoken regularly as the most likely Chinese competitor to make a breakthrough next.
But he has been somewhat in the doldrums since then, failing to challenge for a spot among the top 16 and watching from afar as others from China take the limelight.
Here, then, Zhou has another opportunity to announce himself as a trophy winner, and the ยฃ100,000 champion’s cheque would see him rise back up to number 24 in the world rankings.
Aside from their previous final against each other, Allen and Zhou have crossed paths on the main tour on two other occasions.
Zhou memorably won their initial meeting in the first round of the 2019 World Snooker Championship while Allen edged the second in a deciding frame at the following year’s Scottish Open.
Allen’s overall experience naturally places him as the favourite, but this edition of the English Open hasn’t exactly gone with the form book.
Given how his last four matches in the tournament have required deciding frames, plus Zhou’s lack of know-how in getting over the line in this kind of match, it could be a long Sunday evening on the baize.
The 2025 English Open final will be played over 17 frames, with the two sessions beginning at 1pm and 7pm local time.
2025 English Open Draw
Round of 32 (bo7)
Neil Robertson 1-4 Jackson Page
Shaun Murphy 4-1 Fan Zhengyi
Wu Yize 4-2 Chris Wakelin
Lei Peifan 0-4 Mark Selby
Mark Williams 1-4 Zhou Yuelong
Barry Hawkins 4-0 Tom Ford
Luca Brecel 4-2 Si Jiahui
Pang Junxu 0-4 Robbie Williams
Judd Trump 4-1 Yuan Sijun
Gary Wilson 0-4 Elliot Slessor
Stuart Bingham 3-4 Mark Allen
Matthew Selt 1-4 Ding Junhui
Xiao Guodong 3-4 Ricky Walden
Zhang Anda 1-4 Jak Jones
Aaron Hill 4-3 Ali Carter
Jack Lisowski 4-1 Zhao Xintong
Round of 16 (bo7)
Jackson Page 4-3 Shaun Murphy
Wu Yize 2-4 Mark Selby
Zhou Yuelong 4-2 Barry Hawkins
Luca Brecel 4-3 Robbie Williams
Judd Trump 3-4 Elliot Slessor
Mark Allen 4-3 Ding Junhui
Ricky Walden 3-4 Jak Jones
Aaron Hill 4-1 Jack Lisowski
Quarter-Finals (bo9)
Jackson Page 4-5 Mark Selby
Zhou Yuelong 5-4 Luca Brecel
Elliot Slessor 4-5 Mark Allen
Jak Jones 5-2 Aaron Hill
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Mark Selby 3-6 Zhou Yuelong
Mark Allen 6-5 Jak Jones
Final (bo17)
Zhou Yuelong vs Mark Allen
Sunday, 1pm and 7pm UTC+1 (BST)
Click here for the updated results (snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
Allen featuring in his 20th ranking final.
Zhou’s century per frame ratio is better than names such as Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams, Stuart Bingham and Stephen Maguire.
It’s actually Zhou’s 6th professional final. The first was the World Cup in 2015, which is the only success (for China B). I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s been a difficult time for him with a young baby at home who he rarely gets to see.
Mark Allen’s results have been extraordinary, but it’s been tough to watch. It will surely be too draining to approach this match in the same way he has done so far in the tournament. To win a longer match it must be better to try and win by scoring heavily.
They played two long matches before: Zhou’s win in the World Championship, and Allen’s win in Belfast – that was the match when Zhou was 4-1 ahead, warned for slow-play, and then lost 9-4.
Allen certainly proved he could go through another marathon contest heavy on attritional snooker!
Not enough made of that remarkable World Cup triumph.
Yes there were remarkable scenes at the end. Commentators routinely point to Ding Junhui’s 2005 China Open as an inspiration to the young Chinese players, but actually it was the World Cup win in 2015, where they could imagine themselves as future champions. I once heard Lyu Haotian say it was that World Cup win that led him to come back to snooker after his breakdown.
I do think there’s a place for a World Cup, perhaps alternating the a UK-China ‘Ryder Cup’, which would be a massive event in it’s own right.
I’d like to see a team event introduced but definitely featuring nations rather than any vague concepts like Team World in the tennis Laver Cup.
I just think to win a big TV event that young was an incredible feat. Yan the youngest winner of any Main Tour competition.