Kyren Wilson wins International Championship thriller to secure successive ranking event titles

In a rerun of the Masters final from earlier this year, Wilson again got the better of John Higgins, recording a 10-8 victory in Saturday’s title match to collect the winner’s purse of £175,000.

Having won the Northern Ireland Open crown only a couple of weekends ago, in-form Wilson becomes the 16th player in professional snooker history to claim back-to-back ranking titles. He also extends his winning streak to 12 matches on the World Snooker Tour.

This golden spell of results represents a huge turnaround in fortunes for the 34-year-old, who prior to travelling to Belfast last month hadn’t featured in the last four of a ranking event for over 18 months.

Talk of him potentially losing his top 16 world ranking later this season has now stopped, and he moves up to second on the one-year list, meaning he will surely qualify for all three lucrative Players Series events later this term.

How Kyren Wilson won the 2026 International Championship final

World number nine Wilson deposited the opening frame with the help of a 58 but 51-year-old Higgins - appearing in his 61st ranking final and aiming to become snooker’s oldest ranking event winner - levelled up before making a 141 to go 2-1 in front.

Breaks of 69 and 94 saw Wilson win frames either side of the mid-session interval to shift momentum, although Higgins compiled a 56 in restoring parity at 3-3.

For the third time Wilson (62 break) nudged ahead, however it was Higgins who ended the afternoon session with a 5-4 lead following efforts of 71 and 75.

Finely balanced going into the evening session a few hours later, Englishman Wilson squared up courtesy of a 70 before Higgins conjured up two signature counter clearances.

Higgins cancelled out his opponent’s run of 65 with a clearance of 70 in frame 11, and repeated a similar trick in frame 13 with a 65 having sat out a 54 not long before. In between those comeback frames Wilson compiled a 130.

On resumption after the final mid-session interval, Wilson got level for the fourth time with a 66 making it 7-7.

Then came a dramatic and perhaps pivotal frame 15 that saw Wilson miss a black when closing in on going in front. It looked like Higgins was going to subsequently complete yet another steal, but when seemingly having done the hard work, he missed the final blue.

Wilson stepped up to dish out the punishment on this occasion by sinking the final three balls before compounding his peer’s frustration by fashioning a break of 101 for 9-7 - the first time in the final there’d been more than a frame between the contestants.

An opportunity for Wilson to wrap up victory arrived in frame 17 as he got up to 44 but missed a pink with the finish line approaching; Higgins duly took the frame from his visit to keep his hopes alive.

With his back still against the wall, Higgins scored first in frame 18 before missing a fiddly black to corner, and Wilson responded with a 61, although failed to sink what was essentially match-ball red.

But moments later, Wilson did deposit the red he required and - despite his opponent making him sweat when attempting to obtain the snookers he needed - the Englishman eventually got the job done.

A new addition to his CV, Wilson becomes the ninth different winner of the International Championship.

His journey to the title has been far from straightforward; Wilson very nearly didn’t even make it to Nanjing as he had to battle back from 5-2 down to score a 6-5 win against Irish youngster Leone Crowley in the qualifying round held in England several weeks ago.

At the main venue stages in the Far East over the past few days, Wilson also survived deciding frame climaxes against Liam Highfield and Oliver Lines in the last 64 and 16 respectively, as well as overturning a first session deficit to Fan Zhengyi in the semi-finals.

Next up on the professional snooker circuit is the 2026 Champion of Champions from Leicester, England between November 9-15. Wilson is scheduled to play Ali Carter in the opening round on Thursday.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 International Championship, visit our tournament information centre here.