Kyren Wilson hoping history repeats after Tour Championship qualification disappointment

World number two Wilson is by far the biggest name to have missed the cut for next week’s £500,000 world ranking event at the Manchester Central; all the other members of the world’s top eight rankings qualified via the one-year list.

The 2024 World Champion could have gatecrashed the Tour Championship by winning last week’s World Open in Yushan, China, but lost in the last 16 to Wu Yize and finished 20th in the race, several places off the grade in the seasonal standings. This means his next engagement on the top flight will be the 2026 World Snooker Championship starting in the second half of April.

Last season, whilst wearing the Crucible crown for the first time, Wilson had no such concerns qualifying for any of the three Players Series events (World Grand Prix, Players Championship, Tour Championship) as he won four ranking event titles, defeating Judd Trump in the final of three of those.

That campaign did end on a low note, though, as he became the latest player to fall victim to the ‘Crucible Curse’ when he lost to qualifier Lei Peifan on the opening day of the 2025 World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.

Wilson’s ‘Jeckll and Hyde’ season on the World Snooker Tour

‘The Warrior’ dusted himself off from that frustration in the best possible fashion, winning the first full event he played in at the start of this season, the Shanghai Masters.

Several months later, at the Alexandra Palace in London, Wilson claimed his second Triple Crown title as he triumphed at the Masters following victory over John Higgins in the final. It was a case of ‘third time’s a charm’ having been runner-up in 2018 and twelve months before.

However, despite winning over £550,000 from these two successes alone, not a penny went towards his ranking totals as they were invitational competitions.

Wilson - who had to deal with his wife being ill, and problems with his cue during this term - has not reached a single ranking event semi-final from his 13 outings this season, so far.

As a result, he missed out on the cut for the recent Players Championship held in Telford - an event he was the reigning champion of - and now the penultimate tournament of the professional season, the Tour Championship.

He would have also had ambitions of chasing down Trump at the top of the rankings tree and becoming the world number one for the first time in his career, but he’ll have to wait another season for that now as he is set to try and defend £500,000 from his two-year rolling ranking total at the upcoming World Snooker Championship.

Regardless of what happens in Manchester next week, Wilson will be the number three seed in Sheffield and in the same half of the draw as Trump. Reigning champion Zhao (number one seed) and Neil Robertson (number four seed) with both be in the opposite, top half.

Whilst Wilson’s shortcomings in ranking event action this campaign - although he has made three quarter-finals - weren’t in the plan, the season probably goes down as a success, so far.

At this stage of his career, Wilson now deals in lifting trophies, not merely qualifying for or getting to the business end of tournaments. Whilst he missed out on the Players and Tour Championships, he collected two substantially more lucrative accolades at the Shanghai Masters and Masters.

Will history repeat itself for Wilson in his Crucible crown bid?

Wilson finds himself in a very familiar position to what he faced two years ago going into the World Championship.

During the 2023/24 season, his results were arguably poorer, as he didn’t win, nor reach a final of any event. His best returns were a semi-final finish at the German Masters, and two further quarter-final runs.

As a consequence, he failed to qualify for all three Players Series legs - even the 32-player World Grand Prix.

In fact, heading into the Crucible, he only featured in three ranking events that calendar year beforehand. Some could argue that he went into the 17-day green baize marathon fresher than others - could that be the same case in 2026 as he aims to join an exclusive club in becoming a multiple-time world champion?

It is a scenario that Wilson himself discussed with the World Snooker Tour during an interview in Yushan last week before his elimination in round four.

Talking about qualifying for the Tour Championship or not and how that would affect his Crucible preparations, the 34-year-old Englishman said: “Win-win for me. I’ll be going there either really fresh off the back of a holiday like I did in ‘24 when I went on to win it, or I’ll be going there potentially from hopefully a good run at the Tour Championship and a good run here (World Open), so either way it's going to be a win-win situation for me going into the World Championship.

“We don't get much family time nowadays, there's a lot of snooker to be played, so I always try to make the most of it where I can and try and take positive where I can.”

Wilson can also take solace from the fact that no-one - from the seven completed editions to date - has won the World Championship after winning the Tour Championship held only a few weeks before.