International Championship

Well done Surety on a quarter-final; presumably his rankings must be on the rise, sure he's had more than one good result of late.

Zak Surety has risen from 60th to 53rd in the rankings. Prior to this tournament his best performance this season so far was getting to the last 32 of the British Open, so this was first quarter final of the season.

He did finish strongly last season, getting to the semi-final of the World Open, beating Si Jiahui and Tom Ford along the way before losing 6-5 to Higgins. He beat Jack Lisowski at Judgement Day in the World Championship, but lost 10-7 at the Crucible to Ding.

Wu Yize needs to win the International Championship to get into the top 16 for the UK Championship. The score after the first session is 4-4. The highlights so far; a 140 total clearance by Wu to go 3-2 up after the interval, and a 72 clearance by Zhao to level at 4-4. China is 8 hours ahead of the UK, so when the match resumes at 7pm in China, it will be 11am here. It is best of 17.

The 2nd semi-final, between the 2 bald scotsmen, takes place tomorrow.

Every chance for Wu Yize now to get into the top 16 at the expense of Chris Wakelin for the UK Championship as he beat Zhao 9-6. Wu ruthlessly won the first 4 frames of the 2nd session to go 8-4, including making a 108 break. Zhao fought back with breaks of 81 and 50 to close the gap to 8-6, but with a decisive 65 break, Wu put himself into his 3rd ranking final. Maybe it will be 3rd time lucky for Wu.

Higgins breezed to an easy 9-2 victory over Maguire. Should be an interesting final tomorrow between Higgins and Wu. Both players are on excellent form!

Bye bye Misery .

Thank you John Higgins .

Well, another semi-final for Maguire should do put a smile on his f-, oh, who am I kidding?

Wu Yize is the champion after defeating John Higgins 10-6. Wu made 3 centuries in the first 7 frames to go 5-2 up, but then, after 2 scrappy frames, Higgins pulled it back to 5-4 at the end of the session. A much more calm and collected Wu won 3 of the next 4 frames to go 8-5 up, and he finished off Higgins in frame 16 with a 108 break.

Wu is now in the top 16 for the UK Championship, confining Chris Wakelin to Judgement Day.

Wow, well done there