By Elliott West
“I’ll still make the sacrifices required to try and get to the top, but at the same time I want to enjoy my career again”.
Kyren Wilson
Introduction
In a recent Talking Snooker podcast interview, Kyren Wilson admitted that he had fallen out of love with the game last season. As anyone who plays or loves watching snooker will know, snooker can be a very cruel game that takes you on a tidal wave of ultimate victory highs and defeat/ form lows that chip away at your confidence and corrodes positivity. Many in the sport have held up the white flag when this key element of their game has flown away with players such as Tony Meo permanently shutting the snooker door and turning his back on it for good and choosing a trade in the jewellery and watch profession instead. A worrying sign but with Barry Stark in your corner as a coach, this is highly likely to be a temporary blip in Kyren’s illustrious snooker career and an experience that the 30-year-old will want to quickly erase from his memory and kick this unpleasant can firmly down the road.
Picking Through the Pieces
Kyren Wilson first burst onto the professional circuit in 2010 and was quickly touted as a future world champion. Unfortunately, this has to date, not come to fruition. He did reach the final of the 2020 World Championship but came across a rejuvenated Ronnie O’Sullivan who frankly made mincemeat of his opponent and inflicted a crushing 18-8 defeat on the player that has been nicknamed ‘The Warrior’. A snooker scar that took time to heal.
Of course, there is plenty to rejoice about in the Wilson camp. Kyren has won a number of prestigious titles in his 12 years as a professional including the 2015 Shanghai Masters, 2016 Indian Open, 2017 World Open, 2019 German Masters, 2020 Welsh Open and Gibraltar Open. Yes, it is true that all the Triple Crown titles have alluded him but snooker increasingly becoming a sport where the older players can still thrive, and time is still on Wilson’s side.
I have always admired Kyren as a player and especially because he is extremely grounded. He hasn’t been swept away by his fame and success and apart from his now well-worn Gucci shoes, there are few clues to show that he has made over £1 million pounds in total prize money. A devoted husband and father to his wife Sophie and his two sons Finley and Bailey. Wilson has no airs and graces and is definitely not one of those players who are not approachable for a quick chat or a catch-up.
All Quiet on the Snooker Front
In recent times, the outlook for Wilson fans has frankly been on the opaque scale with Kyren failing to reach a final last season for the first time since the 2014-15 season. A record that is not good enough for someone who is currently ranked 8th in the world. Perhaps the main reason for this lull is due to the sport’s sometimes toxicity and how he not only let it seep into his game but his personal life as well. A red flag in any profession is when you don’t leave your workload at work.
With the red warning sign illuminated, Wilson has thankfully reverted back to his old regards and shut the door firmly when he leaves the practice or tournament table. Although not a 9-5 job, Wilson treats it as so and rightly so. As a snooker journalist, it is easy to put players and games under the microscope and be highly critical of errors and imperfections but to be fair to ‘The Warrior’, he did make the semi-finals of the UK Championship and the Champion of Champions last season and was in fine form in the early stages of the first-ever Turkish Masters.
Kyren has had to compete with a monumental surge in Chinese form with Zhao Xintong winning the UK Championship and the German Masters back to back and a return to form for Yan Bingtao and Luca Brecel and wins for the older guard coming from Joe Perry and Robert Milkins. Snooker is no longer dominated by one player as it was by Reardon, Davis, Hendry and O’Sullivan. The snooker motorway is now gridlocked with potential winners and any of them can take you out unexpectedly. The proof is in the pudding and has been shown by this fine player having already lost to five or six tournament winners. The competition is fierce but patience is a virtue and Wilson’s time will definitely come. This is my gut feeling and this feeling very rarely turns out to fail you.
Afterthoughts
Kyren Wilson is certainly not a player to stay on the ground for long and hopefully, his fortunes will turn around shortly. He next plays in the European Masters against Lyu Haotian in August. This will take place in Furth, Germany in the last 64. Wilson has had the Summer to mull over his problems and I am sure that he hasn’t been far from a practice table or the company of his coach Barry Stark. Barry is a brilliant coach because he is able to deconstruct a player’s game and mental state and piece it back together in an unrecognisable format. Stark is that stark reminder that every player needs when in the doldrums and his industrial iron approach leaves very few creases. A revitalised Kyren Wilson will be back soon and perhaps his previous successes in Germany will add a European Open trophy to his collection.
