The 2024 Johnstone’s Paint Gamers Championship closing will happen on Sunday, with Mark Allen and Zhang Anda vying for the title.
There’s a champion’s cheque value £125,000 up for grabs as each of the remaining contenders chase a second rating title of the 2023/24 marketing campaign.
Allen triumphed on the Snooker Shoot Out in December, a month after he additionally landed the celebrated Champion of Champions invitational crown.
For Zhang, the much-improved competitor from China is bidding so as to add to the Worldwide Championship trophy he collected in November.
The 32 year-old finally emerged from a titanic tussle with Mark Selby on Saturday night to achieve his third closing of the season, having additionally misplaced within the English Open title-deciding showdown.
Zhang raced right into a 4-0 lead with a flurry of spectacular contributions however wilted a bit with the profitable line in sight.
When Selby duly pressured a deciding body, he reestablished himself because the heavy favorite to progress.
However Zhang dug deep with a well timed break of fifty lastly serving to him by way of to the Gamers Championship closing.
The diminutive participant often known as Mighty Mouse has performed 32 out of a doable 33 frames within the competitors thus far, suggesting fatigue would possibly grow to be a think about Sunday’s battle for glory.
Allen’s path to the final two hasn’t been fully easy however has undoubtedly been a lot much less anxious.
The Northern Irishman had a time without work on Saturday having already emerged from Friday’s first semi-final with a 6-3 defeat of Ali Carter.
Following that victory, Allen quipped that he’d moderately play Zhang within the closing given the larger pedigree that Selby possesses.
It’ll be fascinating to see if he can again that up with a powerful efficiency as the ultimate’s agency favorite.
Zhang beat Allen on the latest World Grand Prix over the very best of seven frames, however the latter boasts a 2-1 superior head-to-head file total.
Success for Zhang would see him rise into the highest eight of the world rankings, a miraculous rise contemplating he had by no means beforehand been ranked contained in the world’s high 64 round this time final 12 months.
That achievement would moreover see him earn an invite to the upcoming Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker match in Saudi Arabia.
Allen, in the meantime, might underline his credentials of ending this season because the world primary with a powerful efficiency within the Gamers Championship closing.
The Pistol is already about £140,000 out in entrance within the provisional end-of-season rankings and would prolong that buffer if he have been to land an eleventh profession rating title.
It’s all to play for on the Telford Worldwide Centre.
2024 Gamers Championship draw
Spherical of 16 (bo11)
Judd Trump 6-2 Chris Wakelin
Tom Ford 2-6 Ali Carter
Mark Williams 3-6 Mark Allen
Gary Wilson 6-4 Hossein Vafaei
Zhang Anda 6-5 Noppon Saengkham
Ding Junhui 4-6 John Higgins
Barry Hawkins 3-6 Mark Selby
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-2 Zhou Yuelong
Quarter-Finals (bo11)
Judd Trump 4-6 Ali Carter
Mark Allen 6-4 Gary Wilson
Zhang Anda 6-4 John Higgins
Mark Selby 6-0 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Ali Carter 3-6 Mark Allen
Zhang Anda 6-5 Mark Selby
Ultimate (bo19)
Mark Allen vs Zhang Anda
(Solar, 1pm & 7pm UTC)
Featured picture credit score: WST