The 2026 Tour Championship draw is down to its last eight contenders with the quarter-finals on the schedule for Wednesday and Thursday in Manchester.
Four players have already bitten the dust, with Mark Williams, Wu Yize, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, and Mark Allen all bowing out after the conclusion of the first round.
In the last eight, the top four seeds in the season’s penultimate ranking event will begin their quests to pocket the £150,000 main prize.
Three more wins are needed to walk away with the title, so let’s take a look at the four blockbuster quarter-final bouts to come.
Neil Robertson vs Barry Hawkins
Top seed Neil Robertson enters the fray against Barry Hawkins, who outlasted World Open champion Thepchaiya Un-Nooh with a 10-8 scoreline in the opening round.
Robertson and Hawkins have a lot of history on the main tour, meeting in big matches including finals of the Masters and the Players Championship back in 2022.
The former won both of those encounters and generally boasts a stronger head-to-head from their prior clashes against one another.
However, Hawkins has prevailed from their last couple of meetings, including at the Welsh Open where the 46 year-old proceeded to etch his name onto the Ray Reardon Trophy.
Robertson has had a decent season, but his status as the season’s leading earner is inflated heavily by his early victory at the lucrative Saudi Arabia Masters.
Hawkins already has a win in the tournament under his belt and will be hoping to catch the two-time Tour Championship winner cold.
When is it? Wednesday at 13:00 and Thursday at 13:00 BST
Shaun Murphy vs Judd Trump
With a stellar lineup involving the top 12 competitors from the campaign, there is inevitably going to be heavyweight duels up and down the Tour Championship draw.
Arguably the most attractive-looking fixture of the last eight is the all-English showdown between former world champions Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy.
The pair recently faced off with silverware on the line at the German Masters, with Trump powering to a dominant 10-4 victory at the Tempodrom.
Although boasting just one title apiece, both these players have represented two of the most consistent performers of the entire season.
Heavy scoring is likely, and the outcome will probably come down to the cueist who can assert himself as early as possible in the affair.
They have battled seven times in multi-session affairs, with Trump leading that mini head-to-head record 7-2.
Snooker fans can claim Paddy Power’s free bet offers with Trump at 13/5 in the outright market and Murphy, a Tour Championship winner in 2023, currently priced at 10/1.
When is it? Wednesday at 13:00 and 19:00 BST
Mark Selby vs John Higgins
A repeat of last year’s title-deciding contest pits reigning champion John Higgins against Mark Selby – a meeting of two four-time world champions.
Higgins held off a spirited fight back from Mark Williams in the first round to eventually see off the Welshman’s challenge with a 10-8 win.
The Scot has come close to silverware on so many occasions this term without ever being able to get his hands on the trophy, losing in three finals in total.
Selby, by contrast, has won three titles during the 2025/26 campaign – a triumph at the invitational Championship League following more prestigious victories at the Champion of Champions and the UK Championship.
The Leicester man was enjoying a purple patch of form from November through to early-February, but he has exited early in a few of the recent events on the calendar.
Higgins and Selby share a relatively even head-to-head record, but the quarter-finals is the round where they have met most often and the latter leads 8-4 there.
When is it? Thursday at 13:00 and 19:00 BST
Zhao Xintong vs Chris Wakelin
Many people were probably looking forward to an enthralling all-Chinese affair between Zhao Xintong and Wu Yize, but Chris Wakelin had other ideas.
The Scottish Open champion reeled off eight frames on the bounce to overturn a 6-2 deficit against Wu and win 10-6.
It doesn’t get any easier for Wakelin, who’ll next challenge one of the pre-tournament betting favourites in Zhao for a spot in the semi-finals of the Tour Championship draw.
Zhao has already emerged triumphantly at the World Grand Prix and the Players Championship so is on course to land an unprecedented clean sweep of the Players Series events.
The reigning world champion beat Wakelin at the same stage of last year’s World Championship en route to glory in Sheffield.
They have also clashed three times this season already, with Zhao winning twice and Wakelin once, while their last two games have both required deciding frames.
When is it? Wednesday at 19:00 and Thursday at 19:00 BST
Featured photo credit: WST
PLEASE start the posts by revealing how to watch and wether the matches are on terrestrial television.
PLEASE start the posts by revealing how to watch and whether the matches are on terrestrial television.