Kyren Wilson had just fulfilled his childhood dream, in making it to the World Snooker championship final.
He’d just potted the ball that, for all intents and purposes, had made him €100,000 richer. But you wouldn’t have known it by him.
Rather than elation, the emotion was one of confusion and disbelief, as he finally ended the longest frame of this tournament, and the 33rd frame of his semi-final clash with Anthony McGill, as a World championship finalist.
“I have never in my 44 years playing snooker seen a frame like that,” said John Parrott afterwards on BBC.
“You couldn’t make it up,” added Steve Davis.
Where do we start? So just like they’d done over the course of the last two days, Wilson and Anthony McGill slogged it out blow for blow, ball for ball and pot for pot once more, in this all-decisive frame.
Wilson started well, in taking an early lead but the nerves crept up on him as he missed a routine red into the middle pocket. By that stage, it was advantage to the Scotsman but with tiredness and tension abounding, neither player looked like a winner.
That's the pressure of the Crucible! 😰@KyrenWilson won't want to watch this shot… ever again!
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📱 Eurosport Player: https://t.co/Sn8W3dlGW1 pic.twitter.com/VZ5RrPKGtz— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 14, 2020
As the clock ticked and the misses multiplied, the frame descended into a marathon with the momentum exchanging hands on numerous occasions.
Eventually, numerous snookers, mistakes and two potted cueballs later, the frame would be decided by an unintentional three cushion pot that left Wilson, the man who had potted the ball, visibly shaken.
“That’s the honour of the sport right there,” said Jimmy White on Eurosport.
Watch it all unfold here.
Was that the most dramatic deciding frame of all-time?@KyrenWilson flukes a match-ball green – then looks completely distraught that he has booked his place in the final in such a way
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📱 https://t.co/Sn8W3dlGW1 pic.twitter.com/d2ter6xSIz— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 14, 2020
That’s not how he dreamed of becoming a world finalist, but over 190 points later, he’d somehow made it there. To the Englishman’s credit, he’d displayed admirable mettle to win the previous frame with McGill on the cusp of a fourth frame in a row.
“I’m gutted it’s ended the way it has,” he said afterwards on Eurosport.
“It was a mental match, a mental decider. It’s not nice to send someone home on such a big stage on a fluke,” he added.
"I'm gutted it's ended the way it has"
An emotional @KyrenWilson talks through "one of the best semi-finals you'll ever see" – where he booked his place in the final at the Crucible
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📱 https://t.co/Sn8W3dlGW1 pic.twitter.com/f4DSI33oG8— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 14, 2020
