Kyren Wilson has taken little time to further cement his place among the very elite of snooker, sending a warning to his rivals and proving doubters wrong again.
The Warrior won his first World Championship in May, upsetting the odds after a forgettable season beforehand, but he showed his Sheffield form again in China last week.
The world champ became the first ever Xi’an Grand Prix champion thanks to a fine 10-8 win over Judd Trump in the final, having downed Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semis.
You cannot fluke a world title, but critics aimed accusations of a fortunate draw at Wilson after his Crucible glory, they cannot do the same in Xi’an.
The 32-year-old did have a small wobble after his World Championship win, thrashed 6-0 in the Shanghai Masters by Zhou Yuelong in July, but he is back on the horse and proving points again.
‘I’m just so glad after it went t**s up in Shanghai, losing 6-0, I am so glad to have come here and proved exactly why I am world champion,’ Wilson said with trophy in hand.
‘After the World Championship I have been constantly trying to search for that high. I’ve gone a bit off the rails, which is not like me, because I was searching for the wrong high. Now I am turning my attention to more snooker tournaments because there is so much on offer nowadays. I worked hard for this one and this has certainly given me that high.
‘I had dreamed of being world champion since I was six years old. I have reached my boyhood dream the pinnacle but I’m still young in terms of the tour. I’ve got so much more to give and there’s so much more I want to give. I absolutely love this game.’
The Warrior sounds extremely focussed, but the victory in Xi’an now provides him a significant release of pressure with a huge tournament already in the bag this season.
The pressure of being world champion severely hampered Luca Brecel last season, to the point that he was glad not to struggle with the burden anymore following a first round exit at the Crucible in April.
It is no easy thing to deal with that pressure, as illustrated by the fact that Wilson is the first reigning world champion to win a ranking event for four years, Trump the last to manage it after his Crucible conquering in 2019.
The £177,000 top prize in Xi’an near enough guarantees Wilson a spot in all the events for the rest of the campaign, again, draining the pressure away from what could become a stressful season.
He now intends to start racking up more and more titles, having taken his tally to seven ranking event wins on Sunday. That put him clear of fellow world champions Ken Doherty and Stuart Bingham on six, and two behind two more Crucible Kings in Peter Ebdon and John Parrott on nine.
Trump is a furlongs ahead of him on 28, but Wilson hopes they can enjoy a rivalry in the coming years as the fabled Class of 92 enter their 50s, and he can start to catch the Ace up.
‘I hope so,’ he said. ‘You can’t rely on the greats who have been around in our game for so many years for many more years to come. As much as they’d love that to be the case, that’s not what we want.
‘I know I need to start challenging and lifting more of these trophies because Judd is a long way ahead of me in terms of ranking titles. When I get the chance to beat him in a final I have to make it count.’
Despite a brilliant career so far, there have always been naysayers as to whether Wilson could reach the absolute pinnacle of snooker, with his mindset widely praised but less so his talent with a cue.
Ahead of their Crucible semi-final this year, Dave Gilbert said: ‘If I had Kyren’s belief I’d probably have 10 tournaments to my name. I can’t fault the kid, he’s done great things, he’s won tournaments, he turns up to these things here to win it. I admire that.’
Asked if he felt that his talent is sometimes underrated as people focus on his belief, Wilson admitted frustration, saying: ‘Absolutely. That’s been one thing that has really frustrated me. I picked up a cue when I was six years old. I’ve got some unbelievable stats from being a kid. I feel like I was put on this earth to play snooker.’
As world champion and having knocked off O’Sullivan and Trump to win in Xi’an, there will be fewer and fewer question marks over Wilson as an elite force in the game.
The Rocket, while unhappy with his own performance, said after his 6-4 semi-final loss: ‘Kyren was so much the better player. I did well to get to four frames. I’m amazed to get a frame off him!’
O’Sullivan’s great rival John Higgins fell to Wilson in Sheffield (hardly an easy draw for the eventual champ) and marvelled at his game.
‘He just overpowered me,’ said Higgins. ‘He was very powerful, I thought he hit the ball fantastic. The conditions weren’t great but he was just over-riding that because he was getting through the ball so well. The best man won. He was by far the better player.’
The question marks over Wilson will now be dealing with just how far he can go from here, with more big titles and the world number one spot [currently held by Trump] firmly in his sights.
‘I want to tick it all off by the time I’m done,’ he told Stephen Hendry’s Cue Tips channel. ‘I want to be world number one, I’ve come close at the Masters, the UK [Championship] has always deserted me, I want to be a multiple world champion, I don’t want to just win it once.’
Before the UK Championship, Masters and a World Championship defence is snooker’s newly-minted ‘fourth major’ starting on Friday, the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
Wilson will be one of the favourites to match his Crucible earnings with the £500,000 top prize in Riyadh, which would see him soar to world number one in the process.
O’Sullivan and Trump remain shorter prices with the bookmakers ahead of the trip to Saudi, but the Warrior is capable of proving people wrong yet again.
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