Kyren Wilson lived to fight another day at the 2026 World Snooker Championship after winning the last seven frames to beat Stan Moody 10-7 on Monday.
The 2024 world champion looked to be heading for a first-round exit in Sheffield for the second successive season when he trailed the young Englishman 7-3.
Moody had produced a tremendous display on his Crucible debut up until that point, but the 19 year-old missed a red in the 11th frame that completely turned the match on its head.
Wilson managed to clear up and force a respotted black, which he duly potted, and then stunned the teenager in the 14th frame by retrieving a three-snooker deficit to restore parity.
From then on, there only seemed likely to be one winner, with Wilson ultimately relying on his greater experience to advance.
“It was very difficult. Every credit to Stan,” Wilson, who compiled only two half-century breaks, told the World Snooker Tour.
“The way he started this morning was very, very impressive. At the tender age of 19, I think he is going to have a lot to say going forward.”
“I’m sure he will learn from that experience. As for myself, I won one or two huge frames.
“The clearance to then win the respotted black and needing three snookers to change going 8-6 down to 7-7 [were important].
“They are big swings in momentum. I just dug in there, kept going back to the well, and just applying myself in the right way.
“I knew, going back to my debut, that I started like a train and felt amazing with the adrenaline pumping.
“But then when I went back for the second session, it kind of felt quite flat. I felt all of the adrenaline go, so I tried to use that experience hoping that it would happen to him.”
Moody, the first British teenager at the Crucible since Judd Trump in 2007, had initially launched his maiden match at the iconic venue with a bang.
The former WSF junior champion compiled breaks of 110, 101, 91, 84, and 55 in the first session to orchestrate a thoroughly deserved 6-3 lead.
In the second session, however, his inexperience on the biggest stage eventually proved costly.
“I just lost too many bad frames,” a visibly dejected Moody said on the BBC. “I had the match won at 7-3.”
“I missed the red to go 8-3, and it just turned around. I then lost the frame where he needed three snookers. I’m gutted.
“I felt comfortable out there. But if you lose frames like that, it hurts. I’ll go away, practice, and come back stronger.
“It was a good experience and hopefully I can come back again next year. I’ll try and learn what shots to play at the right time.”
Wilson, meanwhile, moves on to the last 16 where he will face a bruising contest with Mark Allen – representing a repeat of their 2018 Masters final against one another.
The Warrior is priced in the outright market at about 10/1 with more betting odds available online at DraftKings slot games and sportsbook.
Wilson, who expressed having cue trouble, is defending the ranking points he earned by capturing the Crucible crown in 2024.
With £500,000 to come off his rolling two-year tally, the 34 year-old will require a deep run in this tournament if he is to remain as high as number two in the world rankings list.
“I don’t really look at the rankings too much,” Wilson said. “I think as long as you’re in that top bracket, where I feel like I belong, then I don’t think it matters too much.”
“[That’s] unless you’re chasing the number one spot. With the £500,000 coming off, it’d just be a case that I’m getting further away from being world number one.
“That’s where I want to be. That’s what I want to chase down, so in terms of that, it’s maybe on my mind.
“But in terms of it coming off and me falling down, I don’t really care. I’m here to win a World Championship, and if I win it, I don’t have to worry about all that.”
Elsewhere, John Higgins managed to reach the last 16 with a hard-fought 10-7 win against Ali Carter, while Wu Yize and Shaun Murphy built contrasting half-time leads over Lei Peifan and Fan Zhengyi respectively.
Murphy is embroiled in a good scrap and takes a narrow 5-4 lead into his second session with Fan, whereas Wu looks destined to win his first Crucible match after surging 8-1 in front of Lei.
Those games conclude on day four, with world number one Judd Trump and seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan among those entering the fray on Tuesday.
Featured photo credit: WST
Poor decision-making was a big factor in Moody losing this match.
As the WST report also says, he was up 7-3 when he missed a very difficult red along the cushion, leaving it right in front of the pocket — obviously that’s the problem with attempting that shot, it has to be hit with little pace, so a rattling miss will almost always leave an easy red.
Wilson went on to clear, then won the frame on a re-spotted black, making it 7-4.
To me that was THE key turning point.
Obviously that started a run where Wilson won 7 frames in a row to take the match.
After such a great start by Moody, it was painful to watch.
Hopefully Moody learned something, and can quickly bounce back — he’s a likable young player.
There are two facts that seem to stand out so far. Most of all, there have been no surprise with every highly player winning or leading their first matches. The other fact is that many highly ranked players started their first match off slowly. Take into account Kyren Wilson started his match down 2-6 and then 3-7 before taking control to win the match against Stan Moody. Judd Trump began 1-4 before ending the session up 5-4. John Higgins was down 4-5 before upping Ali Carter. Mark Allen didn’t make headways until he was down 2-5 against Zhang Anda. Xiao Gudong was actually down 2-3 before winning to Zhou Yuelong. Then there were the likes of Xintong all square with Highfield at 5-5, Mark Williams tied 3-3 to Kowalski and Shaun Murphy even with Fan Zhengyi at 4-4.
Only the man who has played the least amount of snooker came out swinging smashing the first 5 frames and now up, 7-2. You know his name all too well.