Kyren Wilson

Kyren Wilson (born 23 December 1991) is an English professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2010, after finishing fifth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. Wilson won his first ranking title at the 2015 Shanghai Masters when, ranked 54th in the world, he defeated Judd Trump 10–9 in the final.

Career

Amateur years

In the 2009/2010 season he won the sixth event and was runner-up in the third event of the International Open Series and finished fifth in the rankings. Thus, Wilson received a place on the 2010/2011 season professional Main Tour.

Professional debut 2010/2011

Wilson had good qualifying results in the two biggest ranking events on the snooker calendar. In the UK Championship he defeated Paul Davison 9–6 and Ian McCulloch 9–8, before losing 4–9 to Rory McLeod. He reached the same stage of the World Championship with defeats of Dermot McGlinchey and Joe Swail, before McLeod once again conquered Wilson this time 10–3. He finished the year ranked world number 72, outside of the top 64 who retained their places for the next season. He therefore entered Qualifying School in an attempt to win back his place but, despite having deep runs in each of the three events, he could not achieve this.

2011/2012 season

As he had dropped off the snooker tour Wilson was considered an amateur player and could not enter qualifying for any of the ranking events. He entered all 12 of the Players Tour Championship events, where he lost in the last 64 on five occasions. He was placed 72nd on the PTC Order of Merit. He once again entered Q School but only won one match in the three events.

2012/2013 season

In the 2012/2013 season Wilson was again confined to entering PTC events and enjoyed a good run in the Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy by beating Tom Ford, Jamie Jones and Stephen Maguire, before being whitewashed 0–4 by Ding Junhui in the last 16. He also lost in the last 32 in two European Tour events to be ranked 75th on the PTC Order of Merit, high enough to earn a place back on the snooker tour for the 2013/2014 season.

2013/2014 season

Wilson enjoyed a successful return to the professional game during the 2013/2014 season. He won four matches in Shanghai Masters qualifying, concluding with a 5–3 victory over Marcus Campbell to reach the main stage of a ranking event for the first time. In his first round match against Stuart Bingham, Wilson had a chance to make a 147 but missed the 13th black. Nevertheless, he defeated his much higher ranked opponent 5–1 and continued his run with a 5–3 win over Marco Fu. Wilson's tournament came to an abrupt end in the quarter-finals as he lost 5–1 against Michael Holt. He caused another upset in the first round of the International Championship by beating Stephen Maguire 6–3, before losing 6–1 to Graeme Dott in the second round. He also qualified for the China Open, but was eliminated 5–3 by Jamie O'Neill in the opening round.

In World Championship qualifying, Wilson beat Chris Norbury 10–6 and then produced a pair of superb performances to see off experienced campaigners Alfie Burden and Rod Lawler both by 10–3 scorelines to stand just one win away from reaching the Crucible for the first time. He faced the 2006 winner of the event Graeme Dott and came back from 4–1 down to trail only 5–4 at the end of the first session. His momentum continued into the evening and he went on to win 10–7, making nine breaks over 50 during the match. Afterwards, Wilson said that he wanted to draw reigning champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round, with his beaten opponent Dott stating that Wilson could beat anybody if he plays to the same standard again. Wilson played world number 12 Ricky Walden and lost 10–7, despite scoring two centuries in the match.

2014/2015 season

Wilson failed to qualify for the first three ranking events of the 2014/2015 season, before beating Ross Muir to play in the first round of the International Championship where he lost 6–2 to Sam Baird. After edging Gary Wilson 6–5 in the first round of the UK Championship, Kyren stated that his concentration had been fading in matches this season and would have to raise his game significantly against defending champion Neil Robertson. He did exactly that as he made a 87 break to lead 5–4 and had a chance to win in the next frame courtesy of a fluked red, but lost position on the final brown allowing Robertson to level. In the decider Wilson missed a tough opening red and Robertson responded with a match winning 86. After losing in the semi-finals of the Shoot-Out, Wilson had his best finish of the year in a ranking event as he dropped just one frame in beating Alan McManus and Ben Woollaston at the Indian Open. In the last 16 he was edged out 4–3 by Joe Perry. Wilson broke into the top 64 in the rankings for the first time during the season to end it as the world number 56.

2015/2016 season

Wilson won three matches to qualify for the 2015 Shanghai Masters and came through a wildcard round match in China, before beating Joe Perry 5–2 and Michael Holt 5–1. In Wilson's second career ranking event quarter-final he led home favourite Ding Junhui 3–1, before Ding levelled at 3–3. The match went to a deciding frame, which Wilson won on the final black. Wilson then dominated Mark Allen 6–1 to reach his first ranking final, where his match with Judd Trump went to a deciding frame, after Wilson had led 7–3, 8–4 and 9–7. In the decider, Wilson made a championship winning 75 break to claim his first ranking title. The surprise victory saw the world number 54 Wilson become the lowest ranked player to win a ranking title since 2005, however he rose to 22nd after the event.

After the Shanghai success, Wilson lost in the last 32 of the two next ranking events: 6−3 to Mark Allen at the International Championship and 6−1 to Tom Ford at the UK Championship. At the German Masters after beating Rory McLeod, Michael Holt and Ryan Day, all by 5−4 scorelines, he reached the semi-finals, but was defeated 6−3 by Luca Brecel, who became the first Belgian player to reach the final of a ranking event.

Along with Anthony Hamilton at the China Open qualifiers, Wilson set a new record of six consecutive centuries in a snooker match, four of which were scored by him. In the first round of the Welsh Open, Wilson lost 4−3 to Irish amateur Leo Fernandez. He qualified for the World Grand Prix, having finished fourth on the World Grand Prix Order of Merit, but lost 4–1 to Joe Perry in the last 16 and at the China Open he was knocked out 5−1 in the second round by Rod Lawler. Wilson came through World Championship qualifying and then edged out Joe Perry 10–9 in the opening round. In the second round he took a 7–1 lead over Mark Allen after the first session and also led 11–5, before Allen won four frames in a row. However, Wilson then took the two frames he needed to reach the quarter-finals and made the tournament's high break of 143 against Mark Selby, but lost 13–8. His highly successful season saw him placed in the top 16 for the first time, ending the year at 16th in the world rankings.

2016/2017 season

Wilson recovered from 3–0 down to Xiao Guodong in the second round of the Indian Open to win 4–3 and would go on to play in the final after eliminating Nigel Bond 4–1 in the semi-finals. He faced Anthony McGill and it marked the first ranking event final in five years to feature two players under the age of 25. They were tied at 2–2 at the interval, but McGill pulled away to triumph 5–2.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Ranking event finals: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)