By the end of Saturday’s play at the Crucible, the semi-finals will have concluded and the two finalists at the 2026 World Snooker Championship will finally be known.
What began back on April 6 on the first day of the qualifiers in Sheffield is almost at its last leg, but there remain hurdles to overcome.
Both semi-final fixtures are finely poised, and each of the four contenders left in the draw can still aspire to lifting the trophy aloft come Monday night.
Heading into day 15 of the venue stages and day 25 of the competition overall, John Higgins is currently in the best position to reach the final.
The Scot raised his game at an opportune moment to pull 13-11 clear of Shaun Murphy by the end of their third session of play on Friday evening.
Earlier in the contest, the four-time world champion repeatedly took advantage of his opponent’s failure to make the most of chances at the beginning of frames.
Higgins pinched a number of frames that he ought not have won to initially stay in touch, but in the third session he subsequently shifted up a gear.
Breaks of 101, 70, and 63 in three out of the four concluding frames of the session helped him orchestrate a narrow advantage heading into their fourth and final period of play.
Murphy, who became only the fifth player in history to compile 100 career century breaks at the Crucible, may be left to rue a string of unforced errors when he could have taken the game by the scruff of the neck.
There is still time for the Magician to wave his wand in the same way that he fashioned against reigning champion Zhao Xintong in the quarter-finals.
But Higgins – with victories over Ali Carter, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and Neil Robertson under his belt – is looking like a formidable force who will have to be scraped off the table.
The soon-to-be 51 year-old is bidding to reach a record-equalling ninth World Championship final, an incredible 28 years after his first.
While that affair is due to finish on Saturday afternoon, it’s anyone’s guess when the hard-fought semi-final between Mark Allen and Wu Yize will end.
Allen and Wu only played six out of the allocated eight frames from their second session on Friday after two frames went beyond the hour mark.
The second of those, which proved to be the last frame they had time to undertake, took 100 minutes – smashing the record for the longest ever at the Crucible.
The ironic thing is that throughout all of that the pair combined to produce some excellent snooker, both tactically during their tit-for-tat battles and among the balls when scoring.
While Wu dominated the opening session, back came Allen with a brace of tremendous century breaks during the second session to restore parity.
At 7-7, they could yet have 19 more frames to play, and depending on just how late they finish on Saturday night, the winner might instantly be at a disadvantage heading into the start of the final on Sunday.
Simply getting to that showdown for glory, of course, will be the most important thing right now.
At times on Friday, there were signs that Allen’s experience and Wu’s lack of big-time know-how were proving to be the difference, but there is plenty of time for the momentum to swing again.
Indeed, both semi-finals at the 2026 World Snooker Championship are set up nicely for a dramatic denouement with the dangling carrot of a place in the final tantalisingly within reach.
Featured photo credit: WST
