Kyren Wilson told John Higgins to ‘sod off’ before Scotsman’s rant | Other | Sport

Kyren Wilson told one of his heroes, John Higgins, to “sod off” after being given a snooker lesson by the four-time world champion. The pair will meet in the final of the Masters after both came through 6-5 cliffhangers in their semi-finals: Wilson against Wu Yize, Higgins against Judd Trump.

Wilson is hoping to make it third time lucky after losing his two previous final appearances, while Higgins is looking for his third Masters crown and his first since 2006. There is great mutual respect between the pair. Speaking after beating Wu, Wilson said: “He is a hero of mine, I grew up watching him and I love what he has given to the game, he is a role model.” Higgins has had the better of it in previous meetings, winning 20 of their 27 matches, including a 13-2 rout in the second round of the 2023 World Championship.

A close match had been expected but Higgins rolled back the years with a superb display, which Wilson, who had hit a 147 break in the first round, had no answer to.

Higgins was as surprised as anyone by the one-sided scoreline, saying: “I am over the moon just to beat Kyren, but to beat him with a session to spare, I would never have believed that was possible. I felt as if I could just play there all day. It felt really good, and you do not get that many times here.”

However, he wasn’t as happy about the scheduling of his quarter-final against fellow multiple world champion Mark Selby, which saw an afternoon session on a Tuesday before a back-to-back session the following day.

Higgins fumed: “It’s pathetic isn’t it? I’ve been coming for 29 years and every year there’s a quarter where you’re going back-to-back sessions in a quarter-final of a World Championship.

“It’s terrible, absolutely terrible. It’s pathetic. Why? Why are you out there playing for like 10 hours? It depends on the way the match is going, if you’re well in front it can be great because you just want to roll on with it. But if you’re well behind you want to have a little break and you don’t want the other guy to still feel good.”

Higgins will have no complaints about the scheduling of Sunday’s best-of-19 final, which, as usual, will take place over two sessions. The Wizard is Wishaw is just happy to be there after coming back from 3-0 and 5-3 down to beat world number one Trump, who missed a crucial brown just when he looked set to wrap up the match at 5-3 up.

The 50-year-old said: “It was amazing, I can’t believe I am through. It has to go down as one of my biggest ever wins because Judd is such a great champion and he had won so many matches against me in the last few years.”