Kyren left devastated by Masters final defeat

Kyren Wilson is consoled after his defeat to Mark Allen in the Dafabet Masters final. Picture courtesy of World Snooker

Wilson lost 10-7 to Mark Allen at the Alexandra Palace in his first major final and was clearly emotional after he chucked all he had at the Northern Ireland potter.

But the 26-year-old, who was the youngest player in seven years to reach the final of snooker’s second biggest tournament, is adamant it only makes him doubly determined to succeed.

“It is just the best feeling playing in front of a big crowd and TV audience. I love playing in the UK too," he said.

“I went into Pizza Express at the interval and people came up to me wanting signatures – that’s what I want.

“I want that for myself and I want that for the game. It is nice to play in finals but I need to turn it into trophies.”

After Wilson's magnificent semi-final win against Judd Trump, hopes were high he could go on and claim the trophy.

The pair were level at 4-4 at the interval and shared the first two frames of the evening session in a scrappy contest that was low on quality but high on drama.

But Allen soon pulled away into a 8-5 lead to establish control, before Wilson closed to 8-7 to set the nerves jangling.

However, Allen took advantage of some key Wilson misses and closed it out with a nerveless 72 break to claim victory.

“I am devastated, you can’t make mistakes against a player of his class,” Wilson added.

"I just made things a little bit too easy for him, I kept putting him in the balls and you can't do that against him

"He will punish you and that is what he did. The last frame of the first session, when he potted an awesome long red, changed it.

"I could not see how I was not 5-3 ahead and that he did very well to see if through.

"Every credit to Mark, he is a battler and that is what he did. Every time he was at the table, I was then following up with balls on the cushions.

“I was always going to struggle to claw my way back into it. I knew I had to knock the balls in and I could not rely on Mark to make mistakes.

“I said if I was going to lose to anyone, I don’t mind it being Mark.”

Watch the London Masters LIVE on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with Colin Murray and analysis from Neil Robertson, Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.