Snooker: Kyren Wilson emerged as the Masters winner

Late on sunday night english snooker star Kyren Wilson was relieved, moved and happy. He won the Masters tournament for the first time in his career, which was played at the legendary Alexandra Palace in London.

In the final, the 50-year-old Scot, one of the legends of the sport, fell 10–6 John Higgins. The Masters belongs to the sport’s major tournaments, the Triple Crown, together with the UK Championship and the World Championship.

Wilson, 34, could be considered a surprise to win the Masters, even though he is the 2024 world champion. The past season has been a nightmare for him in many ways.

The World Cup tournament that already ended last season was a severe disappointment for the reigning champion: he was eliminated in the first round. The new season started with a victory at the Shanghai Masters tournament, but since then Wilson has often been knocked out of tournaments already in the first round.

This happened, for example, at the end of 2025 in the British championship tournament.

“I’m completely lost,” Wilson stated tearfully at the time BBC:n by.

“It was close to seeing someone having a nervous breakdown.”

There were several reasons for Wilson’s decline, one of which was directly related to playing. Wilson’s stick, with which he, among other things, won the World Championship gold, was being renovated during the season – and the renovation made the stick unusable.

“It was a freak accident that was out of my control and it destroyed the stick that I felt I ruled the world with.”

Before the Masters tournament, Wilson received a stick, which he is obviously happy with.

Stick a much more serious reason for Wilson’s declining level of playing had to do with his family – and his wife by Sophie Wilson that of another son, To Bailey’sto health problems.

Due to family health concerns, Wilson has reduced his training, but he has participated in tournaments at the same pace as before.

Sophie Wilson has epilepsy. In addition, he was diagnosed with a mild stroke.

“My wife has been very unwell so snooker has not been the main focus in recent weeks,” Wilson stated in October Wales Online according to the website.

Wilson said BBC:llethat his wife had an operation in the fall.

“We expected the results and luckily they were good. This has been tough, but the fantastic news makes it easier – not just for me but for all of us.”

In addition to his wife, there was concern a couple of years ago about Bailey Wilson’s health problems when he was 5 years old. It was suspected that he had a spinal or brain tumor, but it was not such a serious illness. He was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, which is a long-term inflammatory bowel disease.

In addition, the Baileys are said to have had a “bad accident” at school that resulted in several visits to the hospital.

Wilson’s participating in tournaments in different parts of the world has raised the question of how he was able to do so during the family’s health concerns. According to Wilson, traveling away from family in general is difficult, health concerns or not.

“I’ve struggled with it mentally and emotionally for a while now, but in the end, the overwhelming desire to be a champion, to win and climb the rankings, always takes over. I want to be as successful as possible.”

The family issue during tournaments has also made Kyre and Sophie Wilson work in the direction of the Professional Snooker Association (WPBSA). They want to create a support network for the families of players on tour.

The goal is to get a concrete proposal by the World Championships, i.e. next April.

“I don’t think there’s anything like it in any other sport,” Kyren Wilson said BBC:lle.

“If snooker was the first springboard for this to happen, that would be phenomenal. Our main goal is if we can help those in need. If there was a support network and a system where they [perheenjäsenet] can log in and talk to other people going through the exact same thing and know they’re not alone.”

According to Sophie Wilson, family members of snooker players have no way to vent their bad feelings when their spouses are playing around the world.

“If someone is a millionaire and they suffer, they have a right to say they suffer too. I don’t think I’m the only wife who suffers when a man goes to tournaments. We all just have to sit quietly at home with the same thoughts and feelings.”

In addition, Sophie Wilson wishes, for example, for the players’ children to have a whatsapp group where someone would help them.

WPBSA:n Neil Tomkins states that they have not found any sports where some kind of support network is in use.

“The organization of military wives is probably the closest point of comparison. We can take some ideas from there.”

Correction 19.1. at 21:01: John Higgins is 50 years old, not 51 as written earlier in the story.