Ding Junhui found another gear to beat Xu Si 9-6 and reach his first ranking final in five years at the International Championship.
There he'll face Chris Wakelin over 19 frames, with the winner not only taking home the trophy but earning a meeting with Judd Trump at next week's Champion of Champions.
For Ding, whose last ranking title came in the 2019 UK Championship, it would be a significant victory on home soil and he earned the chance gamely having been second best throughout the first session on Saturday.
In the end, winning the final frame of it to peg Si back to just a 5-3 lead proved vital and Ding was by far the superior player in the evening.
Three frames on the spin helped Ding earn the lead for the first time in the match and he took his chance well in what proved to be the final frame, registering his third half-century of the night to win well.
Ding Junhui, one win away from a first ranking title since 2019! 😮
— WST (@WeAreWST) November 9, 2024
Can he do it? 👀#InternationalChampionship #DingJunhui pic.twitter.com/1MQ68gTL73
On Friday, Wakelin withstood a valiant fightback from Xiao Guodong to reach the final of the International Championship in Nanjing.
The former Shoot Out winner had one foot in the final when moving 8-5 ahead in the race to nine, but Xiao needed no second invitation when Wakelin opened the door, and it required a final frame to decide the outcome of this titanic tussle.
Xiao had first chance in the decider but another poor miss with the rest cut short his visit, and Wakelin stepped up with a terrific match-winning break of 67 which was greeted with a puff of his cheeks when the match was finally won.
Wakelin had always appeared to have matters in hand, doing the bulk of the scoring, including a high break of 119 and eight more breaks of fifty-plus, and at one stage he led 7-3.
However, Xiao – winner of the Wuhan Open recently – produced a brave late rally which threatened to break Wakelin's heart, before the Englishman finally secured his place in the final.
2️⃣ for the price of 1️⃣
— Eurosport (@eurosport) November 8, 2024
What a way for Chris Wakelin to close out victory over Xiao Guodong - a victory which puts him in the final in Nanjing, but also in the world's top 16 for the first time 🎉#InternationalChampionship | @WeAreWST pic.twitter.com/woMwgb1ebn
Wakelin told World Snooker Tour: "I've worked my entire life at this game for moments like this.
"From 8-5 I threw it away. I made ridiculously easy mistakes. In the decider I knew it was now or never, I had to forget about what had happened.
"I'm so relieved to have a day off tomorrow because I'm done in! That was the hardest match of my life.
"In the first ten years of my career, so many times I put myself in winning situations in matches, but didn't take those chances.
"This was my final because getting into the top 16 was the goal. But now the shackles are off and I know I have performances like that in me."
