Kyren Wilson clawed his way back from a significant deficit to reduce Mark Allen’s lead in their second round match at the World Snooker Championship. Wilson had initially fallen 5-0 behind but rallied to end the first session trailing only 5-3.
Wilson Cuts Allen’s Lead
The match saw Kyren Wilson initially struggling, according to Steve Davis. Wilson wasn’t playing his own game, but after being thrown a lifeline, he decided to go for it, and it worked. Wilson won a third frame in a row, producing a half-century break. Allen conceded with the score at 69-6 in that frame. Allen’s earlier dominance could have seen him much further ahead, but the match is now finely poised.
Stephen Hendry believes Mark Allen missed an opportunity, saying he should have won the session 7-1 minimum because of how poorly Kyren Wilson was playing. Hendry added that Allen let Wilson back into the match.
Robertson Advances to Second Round
Neil Robertson defeated Pang Junxu to secure his place in the second round. Robertson’s 10-6 victory helped equal a Crucible record. Fifteen of the 16 seeded players won their first round matches.
Robertson said he tries to get every frame played on his terms. He admitted that in the past, he had been guilty of thinking he had 25 frames, but then having a bad session and struggling to be more aggressive. Robertson added, when you look at who he’s lost to over the years here, it’s the players who are great safety players as they win the safety exchanges. He said he is trying to have as few safety exchanges as possible, but if they are, have the balls all open so he can knock in his shots, because he is not going to beat John Higgins or Mark Selby at their kind of game.
Crucible Record Equalled
- Neil Robertson’s victory contributed to a Crucible record.
- 15 of the 16 seeded players won their first round matches at the 2026 World Championship.
- This is only the third time all but one of the seeds made it through their matches against the qualifiers.
The only player that came through qualifying to still be in the competition is Hossein Vafaei. Vafaei defeated Si Jiahui 10-3. Robertson joked that Vafaei did him a favour because all the seeds had won so the pressure was building and building and who was going to be the one that let everyone down.
Robertson will meet Chris Wakelin in the last 16, starting on Saturday and finishing on Monday. Robertson was beaten by Wakelin 10-8 last year.
The Crucible has staged snooker’s biggest event since 1977 and never have all 16 seeds advanced, with the closest being 15 in 1983 and then 10 years later.