In this tournament, the semi-finals are played over a potential 17 frames, which really is a proper test.
I believe that having previous experience with longer formats provides a serious advantage, and Kyren has been there and done before more than once. He’s a very solid player mentally. He’s been World Champion. Despite being behind after the first session, he didn’t panic. He knew that under such a long format, a two frames advantage after the first session is by no way decisive. He proved once again that he’s very strong under pressure.
Kyren Wilson is through to the 20th ranking final of his career after a battling 9-6 win over China’s Fan Zhengyi in the last four of the International Championship in Nanjing.
The Englishman is in red-hot form currently, having thrashed Jak Jones 9-2 in the final to capture the Alex Higgins Trophy in Belfast at the recent Northern Ireland Open.
Victory in the final would see Wilson rack up back-to-back ranking titles, making him the 16th player in snooker history to achieve that feat. The last player to do so was Zhao Xintong last season at the World Grand Prix and Players Championship.
Wilson will now face either this season’s Wuhan Open champion Chang Bingyu or four-time World Champion John Higgins in Sunday’s final. The winner will scoop the £175,000 top prize.
Fan’s run ends at the semi-final stage in his bid to land a second ranking event title. Today’s encounter was the second ranking semi-final of his career, following on from his run to win the 2022 European Masters. He defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final to land maiden silverware on that occasion.
They came into this evening with Fan leading 5-3, but Wilson cranked up the heat as soon as play recommenced. Breaks of 102, 84 and 86 quickly saw him gain the lead at 6-5.
Fan clawed back to restore parity and looked set to move ahead once more, but missed a black off the spot when leading 58-5 in the 13th. Wilson ruthlessly punished with a superb clearance of 63 to steal on the black and go 7-6 up.
That proved to be a pivotal moment in the match, with world number nine Wilson crafting breaks of 100 and 53 in the following two frames to clinch a place in his first ever International Championship final.
“Fan handled it a lot better than me in the afternoon. I knew that my form was there and it was about dusting myself down and coming back this evening. I felt like I was trying to land a killer blow and that good clearance to go 7-6 up was that. Fan struggled after that,” said 34-year-old Wilson.
“Those frames are massive. They are the ones that hurt when you are sat in your chair. It puts a bit more pressure on you, because you know if you can take that frame from your opponent it can be the difference.
“It is lovely to be in my 20th ranking event final. I didn’t know that so it is a great stat to take away with me. I’m nowhere near where I want to be and there are other legends in the game that I’m miles off. I’m doing alright though.
“Even reaching back-to-back finals is an achievement in itself. The number of centuries is through the roof. I want to congratulate Fan on a great week. He is a fantastic potter with lots of potential. It is a really good win, but hopefully it doesn’t stop there and I can go one better.“
John Higgins and Chang Bingyu will do battle in the second semi-final. John has, of course, more experience than Chang at this level and I expect him to prevail. That said, Chang, of course, has won the Wuhan Open earlier this season. However, other than that he had not progressed past round 2 before this week. He’s hard to “predict”. I hope that it’s “stromg Chang” who will turn up .tomorrow …