From Zero to Hero: Kyren Wilson's seven-week Masters glory turnaround

Those were the words of Kyren Wilson in a teary post-match interview at the UK Championship fewer than seven weeks ago at the start of December. Now, in mid-January, he is celebrating a maiden Masters glory.

In York last month, Wilson had just been eliminated from the Triple Crown event after losing 6-4 to qualifier Elliot Slessor during the opening round.

The result seemed to be the culmination of several months of strains, stresses and struggles on and off the table.

In the spring of 2024, despite not having had a brilliant season beforehand, Wilson won snooker’s blue riband prize at the Crucible Theatre, defeating Jak Jones in the final to win the World Championship - his first world title, and first Triple Crown triumph.

The Englishman relished wearing the world crown, taking his game to new levels of consistency. Within an 11-month spell on the World Snooker Tour, Wilson doubled his career ranking event title tally from five to ten.

He suffered a shock round one exit whilst defending the world title - falling victim to the fabled ‘Crucible Curse’ - but immediately bounced back in his first full outing of the new 2025/26 season, lifting the Shanghai Masters trophy in China in early August.

With the Crucible setback overcome, many would have expected to see Wilson featuring at the business end of competitions over the following few months - but that didn’t happen.

After his Shanghai success, from then until the end of the calendar year, Wilson did not progress past the quarter-finals of any of the 11 tournaments he was involved in.

This downturn in results tied in with issues he was having with his playing equipment. A few months earlier, a ‘freak accident’ as Wilson described it, saw the cue he won the world title with damaged whilst being refurbished.

A cue Wilson said he “felt like I was conquering the world with”, he deemed it no longer fit-for-purpose for him, and it has since been auctioned for charity.

Described by some as ‘an extension of their arm’, Wilson struggled to find a new cue set-up to play with. He was seeking the formula on the day of his match with Slessor at the UK Championship, having a ferrule and tip put on just hours before his match in York; far from ideal preparation.

Away from snooker, Wilson also previously revealed that he'd been struggling being away at tournaments whilst his wife Sophie was at home contending with health issues.

Thankfully, following surgery and test results, Wilson revealed a positive update about his wife's health condition in October.

A new cue, a new year, a new trophy

Following his UK Championship anguish, Wilson went to the Scottish Open just before Christmas. He bowed out at the last 16 stage to eventual runner-up Chang Bingyu - who was amazing for a lot of that week in Edinburgh - but he was now on the path to recovery with a new cue.

Just days before his 2026 Masters campaign, Wilson played in the behind-closed-doors Championship League where he got his playing arm going after the festive period with a series of matches.

In round one at the Alexandra Palace in London, Wilson wrapped up a 6-2 victory over Si Jiahui with back-to-back century breaks.

Speaking to the BBC in the Ally Pally arena straight afterwards, Wilson said: "It has been a really tough time so I thank you for all your love you have given me, it really lifted me.

"This venue can bring the best out of you. I still have a lot of time in this game so hopefully I can conquer this venue for a long time."

Looking back at the aftermath of his UK Championship defeat, Wilson added: "I had a bit of a hissy fit at the end of that game. I'm over that now and I've got a cue that I've been playing with since the Scottish Open and I'm very happy with it."

And that statement rang true, as the world number two battled back from 5-4 down to oust Neil Robertson 6-5 in the quarter-finals, and he repeated that trick in the semi-finals the next night against young Chinese debutant Wu Yize, taking the final two frames for another 6-5 deciding frame win.

That result over Wu put Wilson into his third Masters final. He’d previously been to the showpiece match in North London in 2018 and 2025, but on both occasions he had to settle for silver after 10-7 defeats to Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy, respectively.

But it turned out to be ‘third time’s a charm’ for Wilson, who completed an incredible seven-week baize comeback from being lost to being crowned Masters champion after a 10-6 final victory over one of snooker’s all-time greats, John Higgins.

Interviewed by MC Rob Walker just before lifting The Paul Hunter Trophy, Wilson was asked about the contrast in emotions from only the month before: “Amazing. Amazing. Father Christmas was very kind to me” Wilson said.

“I'll be honest, it was a complete freak accident what happened to my cue, so there's no bad feeling there, but it's so important to have something to trust out there.

“I'll be honest...I thought at the UK, I thought 'I'm gone', I honestly don't know if I'm going to be back in the winner's enclosure, so I came here with kind of a new lease of life with something that I trust.”