Semi-finals day in Cheltenham served us two very different matches. The afternoon match clas close, closer than the scores suggests. The evening match was as one-sided as it gets. Here are the reports by WST.

Mark Williams 6-3 Hossein Vafaei

Williams Reaches Landmark Final

Mark Williams is through to the 40th ranking final of his glittering career, after defeating Iran’s Hossein Vafaei 6-3 in the semi-finals of the Cazoo British Open in Cheltenham.

The Welshman is a two-time British Open champion, having won the title in 1997 and 2021, beating Stephen Hendry and Gary Wilson in the respective title matches.

Williams will now play either Mark Selby or Xiao Guodong tomorrow over the best of 19 frames. There will be a £100,000 top prize and the Stephen Hendry Trophy on the line.

Today’s result marks a third ranking semi-final loss against Williams for Vafaei. He also lost out at the 2017 China Open and the 2019 China Championship. The 29-year-old will have to wait in his pursuit of a second ranking title to add to his 2022 Shoot Out triumph, where he defeated Williams in the final.

Williams opened up by taking the first two frames this afternoon, before Vafaei reeled him in to restore parity at 2-2. The fifth frame saw Williams regain the lead and a 41-minute sixth went the way of the 24-time ranking event winner on the black to make it 4-2.

Vafaei responded with a sublime break of 135 to reduce his arrears. Both players started to miss unexpected balls and appeared to be under pressure. However, it was Williams who eventually fired in breaks of 62 and 71 to get over the line and seal his place in Sunday’s final.

“I played alright in patches. When it got to 4-3 I was gone. I don’t know what it was. I was shaking a bit and he had me, he just let me off towards the end,” said 48-year-old Williams.

“I’m quite good at holding my expressions in but I was totally gone. I was shaking a bit, which never happens to me. If I had to play like that all the time then I wouldn’t win many games.

“It was a big game for me. It is another final and I don’t know how many more times I am going to get to the final of these big competitions. These ITV competitions are massive.”

Vafaei said: “To be honest with you I am in shock. Sometimes this game can shock you like that. The impossible can become possible. Two of the shots I missed, I don’t know how I did it. It was shocking. I won’t sleep tonight. 100%.

“Onto the next one. There are many tournaments. I had a great week in Cheltenham. Thanks to all of the fans supporting me and sorry if I let them down. I will try my best for the next time.”

Overall this was a good match. It featured 7 breaks over 50, including a marvellous 135 by Hossein Vafaei in frame 6, that was his 100th career century. It is true though that there were quite a few unexpected misses as well from both. I’m not sure how much of it was because of the players being tense or because of the conditions.

Mark Selby 6-0 Xiao Guodong

Selby Sets Up Williams Showdown

Mark Selby thrashed Xiao Guodong 6-0 to make the final of the Cazoo British Open in Cheltenham, where he will face off against Welshman Mark Williams.

Victory sees Selby through to the 34th ranking final of his career, where he will be gunning for a 23rd title. Selby and Williams have met in four previous finals and have won two each. Tomorrow’s clash will be contested over the best of 19 frames, with the winner picking up £100,000.

Selby has started the season strongly, having already made the semis of the European Masters. The four-time World Champion was runner up at the Crucible at the end of the last campaign, when he lost a classic final with Luca Brecel 18-15. He will be hoping to go one better tomorrow.

The result will feel sadly familiar to Xiao, who has already tasted a whitewash defeat in a Cheltenham semi-final. The Chinese cueman was beaten 6-0 by Ali Carter here in the last four of the 2019 World Grand Prix.

Selby took the first two frames this evening with breaks of 64 and 94. The third looked to be going the way of Xiao, but he crucially spurned a regulation yellow and allowed Selby to clear and move 3-0 ahead. He was soon four to the good after a break of 123 in the last frame before the interval. When play resumed Selby made light work of getting over the line and took the following two frames to complete the rout.

“I felt like I didn’t put a foot wrong from start to finish. Long game was good, safety was good and when I got in I was quite clinical. I’m over the moon with how I played,” said 40-year-old Selby.

“You can’t rattle him (Mark Williams). He’s so laid back. He doesn’t take things too seriously and is one of the all-time greats. You know that you are always going to be in a tough match whenever you play him. You have to be on top of your game to come through.

“It would be amazing to win. I’ve started off well this season. Even if I don’t win, although I’ll be disappointed, I’ll be happy with where my form is at. It would be nice to win the trophy tomorrow night and get the monkey off my back of everyone saying that I’ve not won an ITV event.”

I only watched the three first frames of that match. When Xiao missed that yellow I called it a day, not because I hated Selby as some would assume – I don’t hate him at all, I quite like the person he is – but because I was feeling very tired and in terms of “suspense” the match offered zero interest.

The detailed results are on snooker.org, as always.