World champion Kyren Wilson has revealed that issues with his cue almost cost him the German Masters.
The snooker star edged Barry Hawkins 10-9 in an epic at a packed Tempodrom, as he bounced back from his Masters final loss to build form ahead of the world championships in Sheffield later this year. And it was far from easy-going as he battled problems with his cue’s ferrule at key stages in the match, with the Warrior revealing afterwards that he had to focus on not letting it impact his game against the world No.12.
When asked by the tournament’s MC Rolf Kalb about the issues with his ferrule, Wilson replied: “It was okay, I played a couple of power blues into the middle and on the second one I landed and had to play safe. When I played in off the red my cue tinged. I’d had the problem with it at the world championships before. I felt like if I tightened it, it would be okay. But every now and then it would come loose.
“It serves me right for being rubbish with my positional play. I had to put it out of my mind. I was playing such a class player in Barry that you can’t allow any negative thoughts to come into your head, I managed to stay positive and get the job done. I felt like we both could have played better, but it was a really good dramatic final that had a bit of everything.
“There were a couple of misses, a couple of really good breaks. We laughed about the clearance Barry made when we were going to the toilet, I’ve never seen such a good shot. I was thinking, what the hell have I got to do to shake this man off?” And Wilson added that lifting the trophy now named after his former manager Brandon Parker was an emotional moment.
He continued: “I mentioned it at the start of the week, the trophy is now named after both of our previous manager, Brandon Parker. So I felt like whoever was going to win it would’ve been really fitting because of how he worked with both of us.