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Kyren Wilson holds nerve to win world snooker title - players react to Crucible final

Kyren Wilson holds his nerve to win the World Snooker Championship with a 18-14 victory over Jak Jones at The Crucible.

Kyren Wilson has won the World Snooker Championship with a 18-14 victory over Jak Jones at The Crucible.

The 32-year-old reached the 2020 final, only to be outclassed by Ronnie O'Sullivan and denied a partisan crowd in Sheffield due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the 12th seed got his moment on Monday night, edging out a valiant Jones who had initially lost the opening seven frames.

How did the match pan out?

When Wilson established a 7-0 lead, there was the prospect of the most one-sided Crucible final in history materialising with six breaks of in excess of 52 being compiled, including a 129 and 125.

However, the resilience that Jones showed either side of the break in sessions was admirable, producing breaks of 65, 75 and 52 respectively to remain in the contest.

Wilson responded with his second 125 to lead 8-3, yet Jones would take five of their next eight frames to let his opponent know that he remained in a game.

Although Wilson remained 11-8 ahead, the momentum was with Jones, but Wilson would take of the last six frames during the afternoon session on Monday.

Aside from breaks of 90 and 73 in the frames that he won, Jones would accumulate just 17 points in the frames that he lost, Wilson heading into the evening session sitting 15-10 ahead.

When the advantage was further extended to 16-10 soon after the restart, there was the possibility of an early evening's work for Wilson, particularly when he also won a re-spotted black to go 17-11.

Back came Jones, though, who made a 96 break having been on for a 147, on the way to reducing the deficit to 17-14, only for Wilson to hold his nerve in the next frame to get over the line.

What did Wilson, Jones have to say?

Wilson was quick to apologise to Jones for his celebration when securing the Championship ball, saying: "I'd like to say sorry to Jak for that outburst [shouting 'come on' on match ball] but it does just mean so much to all of us.

"My mum and dad have remortgaged and sacrificed their whole lives to get me here. My brother and wife too. The list goes on and on, it's a massive team effort.

"On YouTube one of my worst things to see is me crying with Jason Mohammed at the Masters and this is going to be even worse! I said I'd never do it again but I just couldn't help it"

Earlier, Jones said: "It's been an unbelievable tournament for me. About a month ago I was twitching in my first qualifying match. It's been a long month but I'm happy with it.

He added: "When you are playing someone as solid as Kyren who has such a good all-round game, it's going to be hard to come back from a deficit like that."

Wilson moves up to sixth in the world rankings, while Jones breaks into the top 16 for the first time at number 14. Mark Allen is the new number one, with O'Sullivan dropping to fourth.

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Ronnie O'Sullivan pictured in 2016
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