I loved every minute of win over Ding – Wilson
DING Junhui’s wait for a first World Snooker Championship title goes on following his round one exit to Kyren Wilson on Wednesday night.
Wilson, the runner-up in 2020, won four of the last five frames to beat Ding 10-8. The Kettering potter was trailing for most of the match, but came good in the end with breaks of 65 and 62 when the match was tied at 8-8.
Ding has long been tipped to become the first Chinese player to win the world title, but the Sheffieldbased player has not yet delivered.
A combination of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and a drastic loss of form means former world number one Ding has tumbled to 29th in the rankings and needed to qualify for this event.
Wilson, who plays 2015 champion Stuart Bingham next, said: “That was awesome, I loved every minute of it. When you are both scoring well and feeding off each other it produces good snooker.
“It was fast, attacking, flowing and there were some close finishes too. It had a bit of everything.
“The draw is very tough and a lot wouldn’t want to play Ding Junhui in the first round. You can’t view it that way, though, and it will stand me in good stead for the remainder of the tournament. I came out on top.”
Ding added: “I am not really too disappointed, the season is finished. I had a lot of chances and didn’t make frame-winning (breaks). I can’t forget about that.”
Meanwhile, Gloucestershire’s Jack Lisowski admitted he felt “drained” after a “crazy” first-round win over Matthew Stevens, coming through 10-8 on Wednesday to set up a round two contest against tournament favourite Neil Robertson.
World number 14 Lisowski led 6-3 after the first session but was pegged back to 9-8 and although two-time finalist Stevens had chances to force a decider, his opponent edged it.
Lisowski said: “I am drained. It was a crazy game and I made it hard work for myself at the end. I kept twitching and Matthew was coming at me all day. He put me under a lot of pressure, I played with fear.”
Bristol’s Judd Trump concluded his match with Hossein Vafaei after last night’s deadline.