The main event in the month of September for the snooker
world is the Shanghai Masters and with one man’s performances clearly standing
out on that front there is only one contender for September’s Player of the
Month nomination, that man being Kyren Wilson.
To come through on the tiered system and beat five top class
players at the main venue to win the title is a simply outstanding performance
and the mark of a hugely talented player, particularly for his age. He has been
tipped by many for great things but I’m not sure that we thought he would
become a ranking event winner at such an early stage in his career.
Coming to the venue in Shanghai he had already come through
three qualifying matches against Vinnie Calabrese, Mark King and Anthony McGill
to reach the Last 32.
He was also one of the eight unlucky qualifiers who would
have to come through a wildcard match against a young Chinese player to
actually get through to the Last 32, having already done the hard work in
pretty much everyone’s opinions bar World Snooker and the sponsors.
His wildcard match was on TV against Wang Yuchen which was a
nice warm up for the week, and as it turned out that is exactly what it was. A
simple 5-1 victory was the result for Wilson thanks to breaks of 65 and 70,
already showing some decent form. His draw in the Last 32 was Joe Perry the
eighth seed. After losing two of the opening three to trail 2-1, he won all of
the next four to end up winning the match 5-2 and set up a Last 16 tie with
Michael Holt.
Michael was in good form after reaching the Paul Hunter
Classic semi-finals and beating Stephen Maguire comfortably to start off his
week so I expected he would beat Kyren. The way it turned out was not even
close to that. Starting off with a 123 Kyren took a commanding 3-0 lead before
Michael got a frame on the board and after a 64 in the fifth he soon had the
match finished in the sixth to win the match 5-1.
The quarter-final was a different test altogether. To play
Ding Junhui is tough enough at the best of times but playing him on Chinese soil
after he’s got a couple of wins under his belt, with the crowd behind him is
one of the more challenging things to do, and quite daunting. He took to it
like a duck to water, just as he had all week opening up with a run of 89 and
surging into a 3-1 mid-session interval lead. When Ding levelled up at 3-3 with
breaks of 62 and 87 you thought he might run away with it from there, but
Wilson had other ideas when he held his nerve again to make it 4-3 with an 84.
The decider was forced but again Kyren showed a huge amount of bottle to get
over the line on the colours and make his first ever semi-final.
Again it looked like another tough match against the
runner-up from the previous year in Mark Allen. After winning the opener from
snookers required, he took the next three as well, aided by contributions of 73
and 65 to lead 4-0 at the mid-session interval. A run of 60 made It 5-0 and it
was all set up to be a very easy game once again as he crossed the line for a
6-1 win to put himself in his first ever ranking event final.
It didn’t get any easier as he took on the Juddernaut Judd
Trump in the final, but in inspired fashion I tipped Kyren to win 10-9 in my
preview of that final. It was nip and tuck early but after taking the final two
frames of the opening session Kyren had quite a commanding lead after the first
9 at 6-3. When they came back that lead was extended to 8-4 with a run of 68.
Trump won the next three to get within one at 8-7, but again Kyren held his
nerve to win the next and move 9-7 ahead, breaks of 89 and 60 from Trump forced
a deciding frame but yet against Kyren held his nerve, showed fantastic bottle
and was able to clinch his first ever ranking event title in a deciding frame
with a break of 75.
What a performance it was over the course of the week to
topple top player after top player and finish each one in style when it really
mattered, the mark of a true champion and certainly the mark of a man who
deserves my player of the month nomination for September.
Tomorrow we enter the hectic winter months with Octobers nomination so be sure to return for that.
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