The 2025 Players Championship started yesterday, with just two matches played in the evening.

There were wins for Kyren Wilson and Mark Williams. Here is the report shared by WST:

Crucible King Wilson Ends Allen’s Reign

World Champion Kyren Wilson ended Mark Allen’s defence of his Sportsbet.io Players Championship title with a 6-3 victory in Telford.

The Warrior is flourishing in his first year as Crucible King, having already picked up silverware at the Xi’an Grand Prix, BetVictor Northern Ireland Open and the Machineseeker German Masters.

Allen won this event last year after a marathon defeat of Zhang Anda in the final, but he falls at the first hurdle this time out. That means he cannot force his way into the top 12 of the Johnstone’s Paint One Year list and will miss out on qualification for the Sportsbet.io Tour Championship as a result. The Northern Irishman’s next appearance will come at the season ending World Championship.

A 28-minute opening frame this evening eventually ended with Wilson firing in a break of 87 to take a 1-0 lead. Allen responded with a fine 125 to take the second, before contributions of 72 and 61 gave Wilson a 3-1 lead at the mid-session.

The Pistol powered his way back into contention when play resumed. After winning the fifth, he then claimed the sixth on the black to draw level at 3-3.

Wilson replied with runs of 66 and 74 to move one from the win. Allen had an opportunity to come from behind in the ninth, but went in off attempting to double the final pink. Wilson got himself over the line to seal a quarter-final clash with Mark Williams.

“I’ve thrived from being World Champion and I’ve enjoyed all of this season. It has just given me so much confidence and it hasn’t been a burden on me,” said 33-year-old Wilson.

“When you carry that confidence, you can transfer it onto the table and you can almost transfer it into your opponent’s minds. I feel like I’ve done that a lot this season. If you cower away in events against these top players then they will eat you alive. I’m pleased with how I managed to handle it.

“I feel like I’m getting a free hit at tournaments now as I’ve won the biggest of them all. Nothing will ever compare to that, but when you get a hunger for winning you want to do it more.”

Welsh three-time World Champion Williams emerged a 6-2 winner against 15-time ranking event winner Ding Junhui.

The result avenged a gut wrenching 6-5 loss against Ding at the Johnstone’s Paint Masters earlier this season.

Neither player found their best form this evening, with Williams only registering a top score of 64 in the victory. Despite having won this season’s Champion of Champions, Williams, who turns 50 this week, admitted that this season has been a struggle due to his eyesight deteriorating.

“It was tough. Not great. Ding struggled as well, but I’m over the moon with the win,” said 26-time ranking event winner Williams.

“My eyes have gone. In the last six months they have deteriorated rapidly. Every single shot is blurry to me now, whether it is a straight black off the spot or an easy blue. I’m guessing.

“I’ll have to look into it after the World Championship and see if I can get something done. How I won that game I don’t know. The lights magnify it a lot more. I can’t see anything.”

I apparently chose the wrong match to watch… I like Ding and I like Willo and I chose to watch their match. It was pretty horrible. There is no other word. I gave up at the MSI and went to bed¹… Both of them were missing all sorts. Someone on social media wrote that it was good to see that the pockets were so tight. Maybe they were, I’m not sure, but the way the players missed had little to do with the pockets “generosity” or lack of it. They just weren’t on target. Ding’s body language and facial expression was negative from the early stages in the match. For what reason? I don’t know. Williams’ eyes are more than just a concern. He’s turning 50 this week. If the deterioration is age related, which is likely the case, there is nothing that will give him back the accuracy of his youth. Alas. Time waits for no one. Knowing Willo, he’s not going to sit in a corner and cry though. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turns to pool and/or heyball in a near future…. and to golf, of course.

Kyren Wilson has every right to be proud how he is carrying himself as a World Champion. Many “first time” World Champions struggle with their “status” and the expectations/demands that come with it. Kyren thrives. Can he break the “Crucible Curse”? It’s a very hard thing to do … 😉 which, of course, is why it hasn’t been done (yet). But Kyren is very grounded and he will certainly try his best. And, you know what? I think he has a chance.

1. To be fair to the players, it wasn’t just their performance: having had a rather heavy dental surgery earlier that day, I was exhausted and in pain. That didn’t help. ↩︎