WHAT A TITANIC CLASH: German Masters Semifinals.
The semi-finals of the 2024 German Masters will take place at the Tempodrom in Berlin.
Germany’s capital city will host the penultimate round of the current ranking event of the season on Saturday.
Both sides of the draw pit a player on track to win a first-ever title at this level against a seasoned winner seeking a repeat victory in the competition.
As the remaining competitors attempt to win the £80,000 top prize, let’s take a quick look at both of this year’s German Masters semi-finals.
(Friday, 7:00 p.m. UTC)
In the quarterfinals on Friday, Sam Craigie defeated the current champion, Ali Carter, with a superb performance.
With breaks of 103, 89, 71, 65, and 50, the 30-year-old Newcastle native put an end to Carter’s dominance in a commanding 5-1 triumph.
Craigie placed third in the round-robin 2021 WST Pro Series, but this semi-final encounter will be his first in a ranking event with a direct knockout format.
Though she has long been predicted as a future star, the former IBSF world under-21 champion has never quite been able to gel on the professional circuit.
Unfortunately, he will need to defeat Judd Trump, one of the campaign’s key figures, if he is to maintain his stellar performance this week.
The latter kept up his hopes of winning a fourth-ranking title this term, celebrating his European Series bonus with a 5-2 victory over John Higgins in the final eight.
Trump, the 2020 and 2021 German Masters champion, hasn’t let the disappointment of losing out on the championship in the most recent World Grand Prix get to him.
The 34-year-old is now in unwavering form and is a heavy favorite to make it to the sixth ranking final of the season.
But Trump and Craigie have already squared off four times, with an intriguing two victories apiece in their head-to-head record.
(Saturday, 1:00 PM UTC)
Si Jiahui and Kyren Wilson will square off in the opening set of the German Masters semi-finals before that all-English match.
This week, Wilson is still enamored with German events since he has rekindled some of his former passion.
Wilson has won three of his five ranking victories domestically, including the German Masters in 2019.
After defeating Fan Zhengyi 5-0, the Kettering cueist advanced to the final four, where he will face emerging Chinese talent Si.
Si advanced to the tournament’s semifinals for the first time since his incredible run at the Crucible last year after defeating Ryan Day 5-1.
The former amateur WSF champion has made the most of his slightly easier part of the draw.
In fact, Wilson will be the 21-year-old’s first opponent who is rated among the top 16 in the world.
Si has only defeated Wilson once in five meetings, and it was just in the single-frame Snooker Shootout a few months ago, so it wasn’t really noteworthy.
The last time they faced off over a considerable distance, Wilson came out on top, winning 5-0.
