Kyren Wilson put on a spectacular potting display to end a three-year dry spell for English cueists, winning the SangSom 6 Red World Championship title showdown against Chinese ace Ding Junhui 8-4 at the BCC Hall, CentralPlaza, Lardprao yesterday.
English players had dominated the tournament, winning the first six episodes before Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-nooh broke their stranglehold in 2015.
Yesterday's final was temporarily brought to a halt at the end of the second of the 15-frame contest.
Both finalists -- 26-year-old Wilson and world No.6 Ding -- had queried whether the cue ball could be changed as it appeared to be rather light.
Chinese referee Peggy Lee, who took charge of the contest in her seventh major final, agreed to the request with a new cue ball replacing the original one.
Wilson had won the first frame on the pink, snatching it from the jaws of losing it after Ding, needing a small clearance of 30 to lead 1-0 on the black, missed an easy pot on the six-point colour.
That left Wilson a simple pink to take the lead and while Ding went on to forge clear at 2-1, under an hour later he was 6-2 behind.
Wilson, chasing a first prize of 3.5 million baht with the runner-up receiving 1.3 million baht, hit a rich vein of form winning five frames in a row as Ding was forced to take a back seat following several uncharacteristic mistakes, two vital ones coming in frame eight.
First he failed to pot an easy red, a mistake which Wilson was unable to take advantage of, but when Ding, leading 17-0, missed a simple black, the Kettering-based professional slotted home a clearance of 32 to stretch his lead to 6-2.
At this point, Ding aiming to become only the second player to win the title more than once having beaten Stuart Bingham in the 2016 final -- Mark Davis won back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013 -- produced a typical though only temporary fightback.
He closed in to 6-4 with breaks of 57 and 30 only for Wilson to produce the pot of the final to start a break of 36 in the 11th frame. Just one red remained at the end of it and when Ding missed it trying to play a safety shot, he conceded there and Wilson found himself just a frame away from victory.
And with Ding looking disinterested and right out of his best form, Wilson sunk a break of 45 in frame 12 to seal an 8-4 victory.
"I came here full of confidence after winning in Germany and winning does become a habit," said Wilson.
"My career kick started when I won in Shanghai three years ago. I'm up to eighth in the world rankings and looking forward to making further progress.
"Ding is a good player and you have to punish his mistakes. I did just that and two long pots I made using deep screw, I was very proud of.
"You have to play your best to beat Ding, I'm sure I was near mine."
Wilson had arrived in Thailand having won the Paul Hunter Classic in Germany where he defeated Peter Ebdon in the final. His first title though was the 2015 Shanghai Masters, where he beat Judd Trump 10-9.
