Reigning champion Kyren Wilson misses out on Players Championship qualification
Kettering's Kyren Wilson will not be defending the Players Championship title he won in 2025 after failing to qualify for this year's tournament in Telford in two weeks’ time.
Despite his stunning success in The Johnstone’s Paint Masters last month, Wilson's poor form in ranking events over the season has caught up with him, and his defeat in the opening round of the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong on Tuesday was the final nail in the coffin in terms of Players Championship participation.
The Players only features the top 16 players based on season rankings, and Wilson's 5-2 loss to Guodong Xiao means he will not manage to do that as he has reached the cut off point sitting 18th.
Wilson knew he had to reach the last four at the World Grand Prix to qualify for Telford, and has failed to do so.
Wilson, who trains out of Barratts Club in Northampton, has won two major events this season in the Shanghai Masters and the Johnstone's Paint Masters, but neither of those events carry ranking points, and his poor form in other tournaments has proved costly.
His defeat to Xiao in Hong Kong followed on from Wilson's quarter-final departure at the German Masters in Berlin last week.
On that occasion, Wilson started the tournament in good form, but was then thrashed 5-0 by Shaun Murphy in the last eight, with the Kettering man failing to pot a single ball in the entire match.
Wilson did get on the board against Xiao, making an 83 break to level the match at 1-1 after the Chinese player has won the first frame with a 109 clearance.
But he then struggled as Xiao hit three successive half-century breaks to open up a 4-1 lead, and although Wilson then won the sixth to reduce the deficit to 4-2, it was Xiao who held his nerve to win the seventh frame and seal the 5-2 win.
"It was very hard because Kyren is a top player, I had to keep my concentration as there were a lot of close frames," said the world number 10.
As he hasn't qualified for the Players Championship, Wilson's next scheduled action is at the Welsh Open in Llandudno which starts on February 23.
Wilson has been drawn to play against China's world number 59 Hongyu Liu in the opening round.