The Englishman’s rise to world champion is a story about a working man, writes journalist Atte Husu.
Atte Husu
People’s Champion is a term in snooker that was originally associated with a Northern Irishman to Alex Higgins In the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, English majors Jimmy White and Ronnie O’Sullivan inherit the title.
People’s champions have been considered players who make spectators, from sports enthusiasts to power beginners, captivated by their entertaining style of play. A huge factor in the appeal of the trio in question is their exceptional game vision combined with their flamboyant personality – both on and off the table.
Relate the aforementioned abilities or tendencies to other players on the pro tour. Who comes to mind first? Won the first world championship of his career on Monday Kyren Wilson does not come to mind among the first – not even in the top ten.
Talent is one of the most vague terms associated with sports. You can talk about it sensibly only by attaching a thing to which the player has gifts.
Wilson’s talent is in getting the job done. Determined, unyielding, undaunted, persistent, gutsy. It has synonyms that everyone who follows snooker can wholeheartedly associate with Wilson.
Will it be a shooting star?
When Wilson was born on December 23, 1991, English John Parrott was the reigning world snooker champion. The person was not the one most of the sport’s audience wanted to be champion.
In May 1991, Parrott joined the ranks of the sport’s legends by Steve Davis and of Stephen Hendry to the group that prevented the people’s favorite White from reaching the sport’s most prestigious crown, the world championship. White played in six World Cup finals and lost them all. For Parrott, the world championship was the only one of his career.
Will Monday’s World Cup title be the only one for Wilson as well? Did the celebrations have a strong once-in-a-lifetime feeling? This is what many who watched the final must have thought about at the TV receivers while watching the celebrations of the Wilson family.
Wilson’s success is supported by the fact that he has proven that he can perform at his best in the biggest tournaments. On the other hand, the dinosaur section, which has cleaned the prize tables many times over the years, will probably be a staple in Wilson’s potty hunts for years to come – About Judd Trump not to mention.
In the last episode of the World Cup final, Wilson did not show the antics of a great champion, but he was far from his best. Despite this, Wilson was clearly the most mentally resilient player of the long tournament, who also made big hitting streaks more than commendably.
Although Wilson didn’t have a single streak of over 50 points in the final period, he had 12 of them in the first three periods (25 periods). Four of these were breaks exceeding one hundred points.
For comparison: O’Sullivan made 13 breaks over fifty in his first World Cup final during 32 sets, two of which were hundreds.
Master of the workman
When it comes to the difficulty of getting over the finish line, Wilson has had to go through the tough road. His development path is quite different from that of O’Sullivan and other players who started their professional career before 2010.
Wilson, who made his debut under the bright lights in 2010, was dropped from the professional tour right after his first season and had to work as a bartender for two years. Only then did he manage to fight his way back into the 128-man squad.
The problems in the early stages of Wilson’s career were largely due to the changes in the snooker tour, where the sport’s umbrella organization has created huge obstacles for the development path of promising youngsters. Urheilu has reviewed the topic in several articles (read more at this link, for example).
Considering Wilson’s path and characteristics, lifting the World Cup trophy on Monday can be considered a well-deserved reward for hard work.
Wilson will never become the most popular player, but after him you could name a new title in snooker: Working Men’s Champion.