Two Scotsmen will play each other and two Englishmen will face off at the semi-finals stage of the 2025 British Open in Cheltenham on Saturday.
All four remaining contenders for the £100,000 top prize and the Clive Everton Trophy are proven winners of ranking events.
It promises to be a compelling penultimate day at the Centaur, so let’s take a look at both of the upcoming games.
Anthony McGill vs John Higgins
By reaching the last four, Anthony McGill has embarked on a run to the semi-finals of a ranking event for the first time in three years.
It has been a dismal spell on the circuit for the former Indian Open champion, who was once ranked as high as number 12 but now languishes outside the top 50.
There were even concerns that McGill might get dragged into a fight for tour survival at the end of this campaign.
But the £20,000 he has guaranteed himself for getting this far will see him head back in a more positive direction again.
The 34 year-old, who won the last four frames to beat Stan Moody 5-3 on Friday, will face fellow Scot John Higgins in the 2025 British Open semi-finals.
Higgins scrambled his way through a couple of deciders earlier in the week but has grown in confidence since, boosted by a round-of-32 victory over world champion Zhao Xintong.
In Friday’s quarter-finals, last year’s runner-up trailed Louis Heathcote 2-0 but subsequently reeled off contributions of 86, 74, 66, 135, and 57 to advance.
Higgins, who would be the oldest winner of a ranking event if he were to emerge with the title on Sunday, remains on course to claim a 34th career ranking crown and a third of this calendar year.
The last time McGill and Higgins encountered each other, the former won 6-0. However, that was all the way back at the 2018 Players Championship.
Their paths have surprisingly not crossed since then, but Higgins does boast a superior head-to-head record from their overall meetings.
When is it? Saturday, 1pm UTC+1 (BST)
Mark Selby vs Shaun Murphy
Saturday evening’s bout pits a pair of Englishmen against each other with reigning champion Mark Selby in action against Shaun Murphy.
Selby ousted Mark Williams in a mostly scrappy last-eight affair, while Murphy thumped Mitchell Mann 5-1 with the aid of five half-century breaks.
Reaching the semi-finals is an immediate response from the Magician who recently fell out of the world’s top 16 in the rankings for the first time in 19 years.
Indeed, following his standout successes of Neil Robertson and Judd Trump on Thursday, Murphy is arguably the one playing the best snooker of anybody this week.
The reigning Masters champion is bidding to reach a ranking final for the first time in over two years, which explains his recent ranking woes.
Selby, meanwhile, clearly has some affinity with the random-draw style of the British Open, because beating Murphy would take him into his third final in the event on the trot.
The 42 year-old has encountered Murphy almost 50 times on the main tour, dating back to their very first clash that, ironically, transpired at the British Open of 2001.
On that day, Murphy edged Selby 5-4 in a nondescript round-of-128 fixture, but there will be much more on the line this time.
Selby has the advantage from the head-to-head overall and has a recent fond memory to call upon, his 6-0 thrashing of Murphy at the Shanghai Masters in July.
When is it? Saturday, 7pm UTC+1 (BST)
2025 British Open Draw
Round of 32 (bo7)
Iulian Boiko 0-4 Ali Carter
Zhang Anda 3-4 Xiao Guodong
Zak Surety 0-4 Louis Heathcote
Ben Mertens 4-0 Robbie McGuigan
Antoni Kowalski 2-4 Mitchell Mann
John Higgins 4-2 Zhao Xintong
Judd Trump 4-2 Martin O’Donnell
Barry Hawkins 4-3 Jak Jones
Stan Moody 4-2 Ian Burns
Cheung Ka Wai 1-4 Lei Peifan
Joe O’Connor 3-4 Mark Selby
Noppon Saengkham 3-4 Chang Bingyu
Anthony McGill 4-1 Oliver Lines
Mark Williams 4-3 Mark Allen
Liam Davies 4-2 David Lilley
Shaun Murphy 4-1 Neil Robertson
Last 16 (bo7)
Chang Bingyu 0-4 Mark Selby
Lei Peifan 1-4 Mark Williams
John Higgins 4-1 Ben Mertens
Mitchell Mann 4-2 Barry Hawkins
Shaun Murphy 4-3 Judd Trump
Stan Moody 4-3 Ali Carter
Xiao Guodong 2-4 Anthony McGill
Liam Davies 2-4 Louis Heathcote
Quarter-Finals (bo9)
Mark Williams 3-5 Mark Selby
Louis Heathcote 2-5 John Higgins
Stan Moody 3-5 Anthony McGill
Shaun Murphy 5-1 Mitchell Mann
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Anthony McGill vs John Higgins
Mark Selby vs Shaun Murphy
Click here for the update results and draw (snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
Higgins appearing in an eighth British Open semi. He’s won the last two by 6-0 scorelines (Shaun Murphy, 2004 and Oliver Lines, 2024).
Selby aiming to become the first man to defend the British Open title.
This will be Murphy’s second British Open semi-final.
McGill seems to quite enjoy playing Higgins rather than be overawed by playing someone who you would expect he looked up to as a boy.