Jack Lisowski admits that he wants to seize his opportunity at the British Open after a slow start to the 2026/27 snooker season.
The Englishman reached the quarter-finals at the Centaur with a 4-1 defeat of Lyu Haotian on Thursday.
It marks the first run to the last eight of the campaign for the player known as Jackpot, who failed to qualify for both the recent ranking events in China and won’t feature at the Shenzhen Open at the end of this month either.
Lisowski came through a couple of tight 4-3 thrillers at the start of this week against Mitchell Mann and Ishpreet Singh Chadha.
But it was a touch more straightforward against China’s Lyu in the last 16, with Lisowski scoring breaks of 92, 66, and 59 to advance to a quarter-final meeting with Mark Selby.
“The balls were running in my favour today. He just seemed to keep letting me in,” Lisowski told the World Snooker Tour.
“I managed to take my chances and keep my concentration. But it was one of those days where everything sort of went for me.”
“It’s nice to get out of the match without having to survive another decider.
“I’ve had a really good week of practicing leading up to this – I’m hitting the ball good. I’m fresh because I wasn’t in China.
“I feel like my game is back now. It feels like I need to take advantage of it this week or next week.
“I need to strike while the iron is hot, because it’s a very difficult game. Players like me are a bit streaky, so I need to capitalise when I’m on it.”
This is the second time that Lisowski has reached the quarter-finals in what is a local competition on the calendar, with Cheltenham representing the 35 year-old’s hometown.
The world no.16 lost 5-4 to Selby the last time he got this far at the British Open in 2023 so will be hoping for a modicum of revenge on this occasion.
Lisowski can expect plenty of support from his friends and family at the venue if he is to make it through to the weekend, but last year’s Northern Ireland Open champion is trying to maintain his focus with the task at hand.
“Probably,” was his reply when asked if there’d be pals in to watch the quarter-final. “My mate looks after them.”
“I’ve just got to keep focused. It’d be lovely to have a party and mingle with all my mates.
“But if I do that, no doubt I’d lose. It’s all business – I’ve got to take it really seriously. I’m at work at the end of the day.
“It’s fantastic that it’s 15 minutes away from where I live, but it’s just another tournament. They’re all so difficult to win these days.
“So I’m taking it as seriously as possible.”
The Lisowski-Selby clash is part of the afternoon session on Friday with another all-English showdown between Liam Highfield and Stan Moody similarly commencing at 1pm BST.
Later during the 7pm evening session, Aaron Hill encounters Jak Jones while there is also a blockbuster battle between Zhao Xintong and Judd Trump to look forward to.
Read the full quarter-final preview here.
Featured photo credit: WST
