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Kyren Wilson faces Jak Jones in the Northern Ireland Open final two and a half years after winning the World Snooker Championship at his expense. 'The Warrior' has won all four ranking finals he has reached since then, including at Waterfront Hall two years ago, and claimed his second Triple Crown title at the Masters in January. Wilson, however, had been on a relatively lean run this year, with his only final being the Shanghai Masters in August, where he ultimately lost to Judd Trump as the reigning champion. Until this week in Belfast, the 34-year-old had only reached the quarter-finals of two ranking tournaments since last year's Northern Ireland Open, going out at that stage of the German Masters and English Open.
It has been another difficult year for the Wilson family, personally, with his wife, Sophie, undergoing surgery two days before this year's World Snooker Championship began. The date of that appointment fell on the same day as a memorial service for John Virgo at Sheffield Cathedral and the World Champions Dinner, both of which he thus did not attend.
Wilson said: "Sophie is actually in for some pretty big surgery on April 16, which I'm gutted about, not only because, obviously, it's my wife and I want to be there for her, but also I'd have loved to have gone down to the John Virgo service.
"That was always my plan to go and see that and pay my respects, but I need to be there for my wife, and unfortunately I can't make the world champions' dinner because of that. So, again, frustrating, but it's something we need to do as a family; it's not resolved, but it's just part and parcel of life. You've got to get on with it. I think Sophie's more frustrated that she can't get up into the Champions Lounge at the Crucible and make the most of the Prosecco."
Wilson went over a week without seeing his wife during this year's World Championship. He said after losing his round of 16 match to Mark Allen: "My wife has obviously been through the mill a bit; I haven't seen her for over a week now. I'm just going to spend a bit of time with my wife, my kids. I miss my dog."
His youngest son, Bailey, fell ill while playing in the 2023 Players Championship, and his father attended "non-stop hospital appointments with him" over the following months. Wilson told The Guardian last year: "He had a seizure at home and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance. At A&E they couldn't work out what it was. They told my wife that there was a chance that he had a brain tumour, and they couldn't allow her in for his CT scan. Sophie kept it to herself for two days because I was in the middle of a competition. But she thought our six-year-old could have a brain tumour."
However, he explained: "It actually turned out to be one of the highest readings for wheat allergy and lactose intolerance. We'd been giving him Actimel thinking it was good gut bacteria. But it's like lactose and, not knowing, we're making it worse. So he went on a gluten-free, lactose-free diet and reversed it."
Wilson, though, believes that the stress led to his wife, Sofie, who has epilepsy, but went five years without needing medication, "having a silent stroke where she was locked in her body. She could blink and nod, but couldn't talk or move her limbs."
"The worst was when we got her to A&E, and she was on a bed, and the paramedics were trying to get her into the wheelchair. But she couldn't lift her legs to get into the wheelchair. It was very scary." However, he acknowledged that "it's now well under control and she's back driving" after having to relinquish her licence at one point.
Wilson's mother, Sonya, was also diagnosed with breast cancer three weeks before the 2024 World Championship, but had the tumour removed and got the all-clear after radiotherapy. His father, Rob, has multiple sclerosis, which he was diagnosed with when Wilson was 16.
He said last year: "It's a gradual decline, but that's testament to my dad's mental strength because he's got one of the most aggressive forms of MS. He'll hate me saying this, but it's only recently that he's got a mobility scooter. He calls it the Ferrari. He's battled MS for so long, and it's only now that he's accepting help."
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