Sunday’s 2024 British Open final will take place between Mark Selby and John Higgins at the Centaur in Cheltenham.
The pair will face off against one another in a heavyweight showdown between two four-time world champions.
A runner-up prize worth £45,000 is already guaranteed, but they will each have their target set on landing the £100,000 champion’s cheque.
John Higgins comfortably emerged from his semi-final clash on Saturday afternoon with a bruising 6-0 defeat of Oliver Lines.
The latter struggled with the occasion of playing at that stage of a ranking event for the first time in his career, and the vastly experienced Scot took advantage.
Higgins began this week in disappointment having officially dropped outside the world’s top 16 for the first time in 29 years.
But by bouncing back superbly this week, the 49 year-old has already safeguarded his return to the elite bracket of the rankings regardless of what transpires in the British Open final.
The Wizard of Wishaw will, of course, prefer to end the week in style by capturing a first ranking title since 2021.
There have been several near misses since that victory at the Players Championship more than three years ago, but he has once again put himself into position to land a 32nd career ranking crown.
His final opponent is a similarly esteemed competitor marked with many of the same on-table attributes.
Mark Selby had a more stressful semi-final outing but managed to overcome world number three Mark Allen with a 6-3 scoreline.
Although not as long as what Higgins has endured, Selby is also on course to end a drought of his own having not won a ranking title in 18 months.
The 41 year-old is one victory shy of taking his overall tally to 23, a triumph that would see him return to the top four of the world rankings list as well.
Higgins and Selby have a long history of playing important matches against each other, dating back a couple of decades when they battled in three consecutive World Championship editions from 2005 to 2007.
They have clashed three times with silverware on the line, including twice at the Crucible Theatre, with Selby holding a 2-1 record and the overall head-to-head stats reading favourably for the Jester too.
Several of Higgins’ most recent appearance in finals have concluded with his inability to get over the winning line when in position to do so.
Selby, though, has voodoo of his own to contend with having bizarrely failed in his career so far to win any tournament where the host broadcaster is ITV.
The Englishman reached the British Open final a year ago only to be denied glory on that occasion by Mark Williams.
It’s a different Class of ’92 legend who Selby must contend with this time, with Higgins on course to add to the four British Open titles he won between 1995 and 2004.
Also up for grabs is the Clive Everton Trophy, which will take on additional poignancy this year following the passing of the former journalist and commentator last week at the age of 87.
The 2024 British Open final is a best-of-19 affair with the sessions starting at 1pm and 7pm UTC+1.
Featured photo credit: WST
