Winning finish to hectic day for Wilson
Teenager Jamie Wilson finished a gruelling day of action with a flourish at the inaugural WST Pro Series event.
The Havant potter completed his set of seven Group I matches with a 2-0 victory over Chinese player Chen Zifan in Milton Keynes last night.
It was just his second win across a hectic day, following on from beating world number 52 Mark Joyce earlier in the afternoon.
However, Wilson’s defeats to six-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan (2-0), Ben Hancorn (2-1), Lu Haotian (2-0), David Lilley (2-0) and Tom Ford (2-1) put him out of contention for the top two group finish required to reach the second round stage of the competition.
In what was an unforgiving schedule, the 17-year-old was on the table for his pool opener against the great O’Sullivan at 10am and his final match with Zifan ended just after 8.30pm.
Wilson was sure to have been relishing being handed the chance to do battle with world number one the Rocket, but his table time with the world number one was minimal.
The teenager spent the majority of the match in his chair as O’Sullivan fired in breaks of 60 and 80 to race to a 2-0 win.
Wilson would serve up a superb response, recording a 2-0 victory of his own to defeat Joyce.
But a run of four straight defeats ended his chances of progressing before he regrouped to beat Zifan to end his Pro Series participation on a high.
Wilson was not the only player to struggle for consistency in the best-of-three frame quickfire format for an event that has been added to the main tour calendar this season.
Even the great O’Sullivan manage just two victories from his seven matches finishing with the same as the Waterlooville Sports Bar-based potter.
Wilson will now start his preparations to win a spot at the iconic Crucible Theatre in the World Championship qualifiers at the start of next month.
- LEWIS MASON