Kettering’s Kyren seals a superb success, despite his young son’s illness

After beating Ali Carter 10-4 in Hull yesterday (Tuesday), Wilson revealed his five-year-old son had become ill in January and spent and spent five days in hospital, initially with a suspected brain or back tumour.

Thankfully that initial diagnosis proved incorrect.

“We had a couple of days to wait for an MRI scan to find out whether it was a tumour, and that was very tough,” Wilson told the World Snooker Tour website.

“It now seems more likely it could be something like Crohn’s Disease, though we are still not sure.

“But before I left home he was running about and seems to have turned a corner so that was great to see.

“It’s important to talk about these things sometimes rather than bottle them up.

“I have sometimes felt that snooker is the be-all and end-all, but this has made me realise how lucky I am, and it has freed me up to just enjoy the game.”

Wilson has continued to play, despite those concerns at home and he rattled in a century and seven 50-plus breaks in his win over Carter.

It was his first-ever win in the Tour Championship, which is for the top eight players on the one-year ranking list, and he will now face Ding Junhui on Friday.

Wilson has had an impressive season, highlighted by victory at the European Masters as well as a run to the semi-finals of the Duelbits Players Championship, and the 31-year-old is just two wins away from the biggest title of his career.

Leading 6-2 after the first session, Wilson always stayed in front and eventually sealed his victory with a break of 84.

“Ali is a class act so I’m chuffed to win,” the Kettering man added.

“I stepped up when I needed to and made some good clearances.

“This event is the best eight players of the season so you have to be on your game from the start.

“One of my main goals for the season was to get into this tournament and now I have won a match in it for the first time.”