Kyren Wilson says his mid-match interview with the BBC during his World Snooker Championship final win was all part of a plan to send a message to his opponent.
Wilson beat Jak Jones 18-14 to win the biggest prize in the sport at the Crucible, landing the world title for the first time and picking up £500,000 in the process.
The match started perfectly for the Warrior, winning the first seven frames, before the Welshman battled back and made things a lot more competitive over the next three sessions.
The first session finished 7-1 in the Englishman’s favour, but by the end of the second it was 11-6 and a tighter game and Wilson seemed happy enough with that.
After the Sunday evening session, Wilson told the BBC: ‘I sort of had it in my head I wanted to get to 11 tonight after being on seven, so it was just a little small target. Obviously target achieved.’
Hendry was confused by this, saying: ‘Strange one for me. If you’re 7-1 up, why do you want to lose the next session and be only on 11? If I’m 7-1 up I want to press ahead and win the match as quickly as possible.’
Wilson joined the seven-time world champion on his Snooker Club podcast after the final and the Scot wanted to understand his thinking.
‘I’m going to take you to task for one thing,’ said Hendry. ‘You did a flash interview with Rob Walker and you said that after this afternoon your target was 11-6. I was like, “So he’s planned to lose the session?”
‘They were giving you the benefit of the doubt and maybe that was the plan at the start of the day. But I was like, if I’m 7-1 up, I want to be 16-1 up!’
Wilson laughed off the suggestion that he was actually happy to lose the session 4-5, saying that it was all part of a mind game he was playing with Jones.
The Warrior said he knew Jones would see the interview and did not want to sound anything but bullish as a result.
‘Basically I was talking b*****ks,’ Wilson told Hendry of his tactics. ‘I thought, I’ve got to fake it. Listen, we all watch it back. I knew Jak would watch it back, so I thought, if he thinks that I’ve reached my target…
‘But I’ve faked it, of course I didn’t want to lose the session. As soon as I said it, I thought, how can you plan to lose a session? It doesn’t work. But it’s theatre, sometimes you’ve got to fake it.’
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