"If your face doesn't fit, tough": An angry Kyren Wilson posts explosive message on Instagram

Wilson was eliminated from the £502,000 ranking event in Cheltenham by world number 37 Elliot Slessor, who top scored with a break of 128 during his 4-2 victory.

The match was played on table two at the Centuar, with four-time World Champion Mark Selby's contest against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh selected for the main table and television coverage.

The decision to put Wilson on the secondary table has angered the world number two, and he made his feelings very clear on Instagram after his exit:

Seven-time ranking event winner Wilson has expressed his concerns in the past about being put on a table away from the main set-up, but probably felt those days were temporarily over after claiming the sport's biggest prize at the Crucible Theatre last May. However, as he explained in his Instagram post, Wilson doesn't believe his current status as the champion of the world is being rewarded.

At last week's British Open, Wilson lost to Barry Hawkins in the last 16 in a match that didn't start until very late in the evening and finished well past midnight.

In Riyadh for the inaugural, big-money Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters earlier this month, Wilson - who was top seed for the new event due to being the World Champion - didn't play either of his matches on the main table, with the organisers and television officials opting to prioritise Ronnie O'Sullivan and Judd Trump on the main feature table.

So, does Kyren have a point about unfair treatment? Perhaps, although it is not that simple.

For both the English Open and British Open events over the last fortnight, a lot of matches have been played across the opening few days - a conveyor belt of contests until the last eight phase when only two tables are in operation.

During these opening rounds, a 'roll on, roll off' system is used, meaning matches that go on second in a session don't officially have a fixed start time, and only begin after their allocated match on the table before is completed.

Last week in Brentwood, the tie between Wilson and Hawkins did go on the main table, but did not start until very late due to the previous game between Mark Allen and John Higgins going all the way and having a long deciding frame.

In Saudi, a round was completed each day, and with only two sessions each day, that meant only two 'top' players could feature on the main table against their opponents. With television broadcasters and sponsors putting money in to fund and host these events, they decided to give seven-time World Champion O'Sullivan and current world number one Trump the nod.

At the British Open this week, Wilson played his opening three matches on the main table and recorded very comfortable victories over Julien Leclercq (4-0), Duane Jones (4-1) and Marco Fu (4-0). His win over Fu took place on Thursday afternoon.

A few hours later, Wilson’s tie with Slessor was placed on table two at the Centaur - a table that Allen heavily critised earlier in the week, saying that the conditions were not up to scratch and that the table should be burnt. Incidentally, a few hours before Wilson played on it, Allen compiled a maximum 147 break during his round three victory over Julien Leclercq on that same table.

Just as we've seen this week during the opening four days, two matches took place on the main table during the evening session on Thursday. Trump - who is only one away from reaching 1,000 career centuries in professional competition - featured against Stephen Maguire first up, followed by Selby's meeting with the quick Thai cueist Un-Nooh.

Whilst it wasn’t the main focus of attention, table two had a similar arena set-up to the main table, and live coverage - with commentary - on the ITVX platform. Elsewhere in the arena, there were two ‘outside’ tables which were more like cubicles - last year’s World Champion Luca Brecel played Jak Jones on one of these during the same session.

As the current Crucible king, Wilson's opening round matches in Chinese ranking events are held over to the main venue in the Far East. His next scheduled outing is at the Wuhan Open in a few weeks time where he is due to play teenage rookie Liam Davies.