Kyren Wilson
Last week’s Northern Ireland Open champion Kyren Wilson admits he used his frustration as fuel to come from 5-3 down and beat Liam Highfield 6-5 at the International Snooker Championship in Nanjing.
The Warrior captured the Alex Higgins Trophy for the second time in Belfast last Sunday, thrashing Jak Jones 9-2 in the final to win the 11th ranking title of his career.
Wilson was on the ropes this afternoon, but breaks of 51, 127 and 75 in the last three frames saw him turn the tie on its head and emerge a 6-5 victor. After the match the defending Masters champion and 2024 Crucible king admitted he is setting his sights on this month’s UK Championship, where he is aiming to complete the Triple Crown set.
“He played very strongly today. I think every frame had a high break. I find Liam very difficult to play against. I think our styles clash and I play a lot faster. Liam is a little bit more methodical. I got a bit angry at 5-3 and I finished strongly,” said 34-year-old Wilson.
“It took eight frames to keep calm, in the ninth I got a bit angry and lost my composure, but it fired me up. Before that I missed one or two balls but afterwards I played well.
“I want to win the UK Championship. It is the tournament that is missing from my CV. It would be brilliant to complete the Triple Crown, but there are so many good players so it will be difficult.”
Three-time World Champion Mark Williams continued his strong form with a 6-2 defeat of India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha.
The 51-year-old Welshman was runner-up to Ali Carter at September’s English Open and made the semis at last week’s Northern Ireland Open, where he lost out 6-5 to Jak Jones.
Williams composed contributions of 98, 123, 126 and 67 during this morning’s victory and now faces a mouth-watering meeting with quickfire Thai Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.
Williams said: “I can’t grumble at getting to quarters and semis of ranking tournaments with all these players in them. In a few months I’m 52, so it is unbelievable to even still be competing. I should be long gone by this age, but we keep on trucking!”
Former European Masters winner Fan Zhengyi scored a shock 6-5 defeat of 2019 World Champion Judd Trump.
It’s a second consecutive early exit for the Ace in the Pack, who bowed out 4-3 in his first match at the Northern Ireland Open at the hands of Martin O’Donnell.
Today’s result was Fan’s first ever win over Trump and his reward is a meeting with Steven Hallworth in the next round.
World Champion and defending International Champion Wu Yize scored a 6-1 win over Robbie Williams, while world number one Zhao Xintong overcame a game David Lilley 6-4. They now play Stephen Maguire and Sam Craigie respectively.
ROUND TWO RESULTS
Oliver Lines (Eng) bt Dylan Emery (Wal) 6-4
Mark WILLIams (Wal) bt Chadha Singh (Ind) 6-2
Chang Bingyu (Chn) bt Ross Muir (Sco) 6-2
Julien Leclercq (Bel) bt Ashley Carty (Eng) 6-1
Zhang Anda (Chn) bt Huang Jiahao (Chn) 6-3
John HIggins (Sco) bt Lyu Haotian (Chn) 6-3
Marco Fu (Hkg) bt Stuart Bingham (Eng) 6-4
Fan Zhengyi (Chn) bt Judd Trump (Eng) 6-5
Yuan Sijun (Chn) bt Joe O’Connor (Eng) 6-2
Aaron Hill (Ire) bt Anton Kazakov (Ukr) 6-0
Tepchaiya Un-Nooh (Tha) bt Luca Brecel (Bel) 6-0
Ding Junhui (Chn) bt Gao Yang (Chn) 6-2
Kyren Wilson (Eng) bt Liam Highfield (Eng) 6-5
Stephen Maguire (Sco) bt Jackson Page (Wal) 6-3
Xu Si (Chn) bt Gary Wilson (Eng) 6-4
Sam Craigie (Eng) bt Stan Moody (Eng) 6-1
Wu Yize (Chn) Robbie Williams (Eng) 6-1
Pang Junxu (Chn) bt Mina Awad (Egy) 6-2
Zhao Xintong (Chn) bt David Lilley (Eng) 6-4
Daniel Wells (Wal) bt Duane Jones (Wal) 6-5
Chris Wakelin (Eng) bt Long Zehuang (Chn) 6-5
