WSF Championship Down To The Final Four
The 2024 WSF Championship reaches its conclusion on Sunday 11 February when four players from four different nations will be competing for the title and a two-year World Snooker Tour card.
Held at the Grand Blue Fafa Resort in Golem, Albania, the most prestigious event in amateur snooker began last weekend with 211 players from 38 countries battling through five and a half days of group stage action to narrow the field to 86.
From there, the drama-filled knockout stages further reduced the field to 16 players as the event entered into the weekend. Now, as the final day dawns, just four remain.
KA WAI CHEUNG vs. IULIAN BOIKO
The first semi-final will get underway at 10am CET and will see Hong Kong China’s Ka Wai Cheung take on Ukraine’s Iulian Boiko.
Ka stormed through the group phase and dropped just a single frame on his way to topping the group with four wins from four.
He kept up the dominant form in the early knockout rounds and Luke Pinches was the only player to take a frame off Ka up to the quarter-final stage, where the Asian cueist overcame England’s Oliver Sykes 4-2 having trailed 2-0 to book his place in the last four.
His opponent Boiko knows what it takes to reach the title match in this prestigious championship, having lost in the final in 2020 to Ashley Hugill.
After finishing second in his group, Boiko defeated Ryan Gibson in the first knockout round to reach the last 64.
From there, he could not have faced a much tougher route to the semi-finals – beating experienced former professionals Barry Pinches and Duane Jones and Austrian champion Florian Nuessle before coming through a dramatic final frame decider against Wang Yuchen in the last eight.
DANIEL WOMERSLEY vs. GAO YANG
The 2020 WSF Junior champion Gao Yang remains on course to become the first player in WSF history to win both the Open and Junior championships.
Gao impressively topped his group without losing a frame before overcoming final frame deciders against Sean Maddocks and Kreishh Gurbaxani en route to the quarter-finals – where he defeated Nattanapong Chaikul 4-2.
Standing in Gao’s way will be Daniel Womersley, who is the last remaining English player in the tournament.
After topping his group with three wins from three, victories over Kian Dennett, Josh Mulholland and Luke Simmonds saw Womersley reach the quarter-finals.
Latvian Rodions Judins charged into a 3-0 lead in the quarter-final encounter with a break of 86, but Womersley determinedly battled back to eventually win the match 4-3.
The semi-final between Womersley and Gao is scheduled to begin at 1pm CET, with the final set to get underway at 6pm CET.
Both semi-finals and the best-of-nine frame final will be live on the WSF Facebook page and WPBSA YouTube channel.
