Kyren Wilson’s quest to win another BetVictor Championship League Snooker title remains alive after topping group six in Leicester.
Kyren Wilson finally booked his place in the winners’ group of BetVictor Championship League Snooker at the sixth attempt, beating China’s Pang Junxu in the group six final.
Aptly named the Warrior, Wilson had to fight through a tough day of play following a much more convincing display yesterday that saw him win his three opening matches.
Kicking off the day in a superb opener against Ricky Walden, Wilson overcame the struggling Walden with breaks of 61, 131, and 64 to book his place in the group play-offs; not before Walden made a group-high break of 142 in the fourth frame, however.
The former event winner was inflicted his first defeat of the group in his next match, coming in a 3-1 loss against local potter Joe O’Connor.
Wilson rounded off his group fixtures with a 3-0 loss against Pang Junxu which ultimately saw the world number 29 go to the top the table, sending Wilson into third and to a play-off against Sam Craigie.
The world number 11 looked to be cruising to the group final at 2-0 with breaks of 42 and 53, but was pegged back to 2-2 following a scrappy couple of frames.
Despite getting in first in the decider, Craigie couldn’t capitalise, a break of 45 in response from Wilson proving enough to get the job done, setting up a repeat of his final group fixture against Pang.
Wilson was able to enact a swift revenge on his earlier defeat, whitewashing Pang 3-0 in a match that saw an aggregate point tally of 228-17.
Speaking afterwards Wilson said: “I had a bit of time off between my first two matches and I ended up missing dinner, so I found myself scrambling trying to conserve energy.
“Yesterday I was really at the peak of my powers, but honestly it was driving me crazy today, I just couldn’t do with a seventh group here.
“The dangling carrot that is the Champion of Champions is always there with this event, I was gutted to miss out this season. I will be trying my hardest to win this to make sure I’m in the hat next year.”
Group seven will see the return of Pang, Sam Craigie, Elliot Slessor, and Joe O’Connor. They will be joined by seven-time world champion and current world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan, Jak Jones, and Jordan Brown.
Play resumes from 11am on Wednesday, with fans able to view the action on Matchroom.live in the United Kingdom.
Watch Live at Matchroom.Live
sign up now