World Snooker Championship semi-final preview

After a week and a half, the World Snooker Championship 2023 is nearing its end. The many contenders have been whittled down to just four, with many pre-tournament favourites gone as the result of shock eliminations. We know that either Mark Selby, Mark Allen, Luca Brecel or Si Jiahui will be crowned world champion 2023, but they’ve best-of-33 semi-finals to complete first before advancing to the final for a chance to attain the sport’s ultimate prize. Here’s a look ahead to these battles, and my predictions for who is likely to lift the trophy.

In the top half of the draw, we have a battle of the Marks – Selby faces off against season form player Allen for that first spot in the final. Allen has been superb all season, winning three ranking titles and reaching a career high of number three in the world rankings – if he beats Selby, he’ll become world number one for the first time. His path through the tournament has pitted him against some strong opposition, including former world champion Stuart Bingham and qualifier Jak Jones (who eliminated two seeds, Ali Carter and Neil Robertson).

That said, you feel like you have to favour Selby to win here. In the past ten years, he’s been world champion four times, and these extended matches really play to his strengths as a snooker player – he’s able to score heavily, but he’s perhaps the best safety player in the game. There’s not really a type of frame that doesn’t suit him, and that’s scary in an opponent. Selby has already deposed Matthew Selt, Gary Wilson and John Higgins, in a superb match that saw him totally outclass his fellow four-time champion and become just the fourth player to make more than 100 centuries at the World Championship. His form is coming just at the right moment, and I can’t see him being beaten.

If it’s Brecel against Selby, as I anticipate, it’s likely to be a good match, as they’re both proponents of different forms of snooker – the perfect clash in the final of the sport’s greatest tournament.

The second semi-final pits Luca Brecel against Si Jiahui. Brecel has taken out two of the class of ’92 – he beat Mark Williams, and then overcame a hideous deficit to win seven frames in a row and depose (an admittedly very-out-of-sorts) Ronnie O’Sullivan, ending his quest for title number eight. Brecel is an interesting player – he’s very good, but he’s also very attacking, and that’s something that can be a frame winner or loser depending on very his attacks succeed. Still, it has carried him to three ranking wins, and I’d expect that it’ll take him into the final of this tournament too.

Then, we have Si, the wonderkid of the tournament. The 20-year-old qualifier has had a marvellous run through this year’s edition of the Championship, deposing two of the seeds – he eliminated Shaun Murphy in a final-frame decider, and then beat Robert Milkins. He set up a semi-final clash with Anthony McGill, who is always brilliant in this tournament and proved it against, beating Judd Trump and Jack Lisowski, and taking his Chinese opponent to a decider. By all rights, McGill should have won, but he gifted too many chances to Si. This is not to take anything away from Si – his long potting has been incredible, and you don’t advance this far into the World Championship without playing well – but his game doesn’t feel cohesive enough at this stage to carry him over the line just yet. My instinct is that Brecel will win here.

Whoever triumphs in the Brecel-Si clash, the odds are heavily in the favour of their opponent. Personally, I expect Selby to beat Allen, and his experience and top match-play will likely best Brecel or Si. If it’s Brecel against Selby, as I anticipate, it’s likely to be a good match, as they’re both proponents of different forms of snooker – the perfect clash in the final of the sport’s greatest tournament.