Young Chinese duo Wu Yize and Lei Peifan will contest the 2024 Scottish Open final at the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh on Sunday.
The pair of 21 year-olds will vie for a maiden ranking crown, the Stephen Hendry Trophy from the Home Nations series, and a £100,000 champion’s cheque.
With a combined age of 42, the Scottish Open final represents the youngest combined age of the two contenders for glory since 19 year-old Paul Hunter beat 22 year-old John Higgins to win the 1998 Welsh Open.
It is yet another sign in a year full of them that momentum for a Chinese takeover of the sport, which has been predicted for two decades without having ever properly materialised, is growing.
Players from China have generally been featuring at the business end of tournaments on a more frequent basis.
This, in fact, marks the second all-Chinese final of the 2024/25 snooker season following Xiao Guodong’s triumph over Si Jiahui at the Wuhan Open in October.
Wu, who missed out on his first success as a professional when he was denied by Neil Robertson in the title-deciding affair of the English Open, played Xiao in the opening semi-final affair on Saturday.
It looked set to be successive defeats in the last four having bowed out at the same stage of last week’s Snooker Shoot Out.
But trailing 2-4 and 0-56 down in the seventh frame, Wu produced a superb 67 clearance and completely dominated his opponent thereafter.
Additional contributions of 57, 115, and 54 saw the talented up-and-coming star progress to Sunday’s showdown at the expense of his countryman.
Wu would take the front in the race to land this season’s Home Nations series bonus if he were to pocket the main prize in the Scottish capital city.
The player who earns the most money across the four Home Nations tournaments will receive a jackpot sum of £150,000, with only the Welsh Open to come after this event.
World number 84 Lei is the player hoping to throw a spanner into the works, and judging by his displays this week, the qualifier might just be up to the task.
Since beating Hossein Vafaei in the opening round of the venue stages, Lei has incredibly won four deciding-frame thrillers in a row.
A 4-3 triumph over Shaun Murphy was followed by a similar success against Stuart Bingham, before a 5-4 beating of Tom Ford helped him through to the last four.
Lei then fought his way back from 5-2 behind to deny world number five Mark Allen in Saturday’s second semi-final clash, winning 6-5.
He is undoubtedly making a much better fist of life on the World Snooker Tour the second time around having regained his professional status earlier this year.
Whatever happens in the Scottish Open final, Lei is guaranteed a career-high ranking and a career-best payday.
He will surely begin the battle as the underdog, but that hasn’t mattered much in his previous five outings in the competition against higher-ranked opponents.
Wu, however, can call upon the experience of his appearance at the English Open final, when he was edged out in a 9-7 reverse in Brentwood.
Many believe that this player has what it takes to reach the very pinnacle of the sport.
If he wins on Sunday, Wu would match his tender age of 21 in the world rankings having been a professional player for just three-and-a-half seasons.
It promises to be a compelling climax to what is the final ranking event of the 2024 calendar year, with two of snooker’s youngest emerging stars going head-to-head for the silverware.
The 2024 Scottish Open final takes place at 1pm and 7pm UTC over the best of 17 frames.
Featured photo credit: WST
