Kyren Wilson: 'MS is a horrible thing, but my dad's a strong man and has coped with it very well'

The breaks we encounter in life tend to shape our character. For a snooker player whose living is defined by breaks, Kyren Wilson is not slow to recognise he is already in the pink in the formative years of his professional career due to his voracious appetite for devouring blacks.

Having lost 10-7 to Ricky Walden in the first round of the World Championship two years ago here, Wilson, 24, has used the intervening period to enhance his lot.

He was the lowest ranked professional – then 54 in the game - to lift a ranking event in 11 years when he carried off the Shanghai Masters with a glorious 10-9 win over Judd Trump last September.

He bounds back to the Crucible Theatre this year as world number 19 boosted by a 10-6 win over losing Crucible finalist Matthew Stevens in the final round of qualifying.

For Wilson, life seems positively blooming. His son is Finley is one, and he is to marry his fiancée Sophie this summer.

“I was a little boy two years ago, but since then I’ve turned into a man,” said Wilson speaking to Eurosport. “I’ve got a one-year old son and I get married in June. Life is in perspective at the moment.

“I’d like to think I am adapting very well to fatherhood. I’m a bit of a part-time dad really due to the travelling and practice, but my fiancée Sophie understands what we’ve got to do.

“She copes with everything very well. My son is coming up and we’ll have a little swim before my game to put me in good spirits.

“It is something new, and hopefully I’ll be saying it helped after I win my match."

For someone so young, Wilson is well aware that life’s breaks are not always gilded.

Wilson, from Northampton, has been forced to strive amid the pain of his father Rob battling multiple sclerosis, an illness his dad has endured “for most of my adult life”.

When he steps out in the Crucible over the next few days, the first thing he will do is look up to the crowd in the intimate Sheffield venue for inspiration from his father. With just under 1,000 in the venue, he won't miss him.

“He’s a very strong individual to have to put up with that all the time,” says Wilson. “I take a lot of inspiration from him.

“He’ll be here supporting me, and I’ll be looking up to him for inspiration.

“It was longer than 10 years ago he was diagnosed so it’s been for most of my adult life.

“It is a very horrible thing for the family to cope with, but he is a strong man and he has coped with it very well.”

Wilson's first sign of class in a cue sport came when he apparently usurped Peter Ebdon in a game of pool when he was only six – three years before Ebbo lifted the world title in 2002.

Despite citing Ronnie O'Sullivan and Steve Davis as two of his influences, he was never interested in watching the game on TV, preferring to play it for hours and hours. While Davis is suddenly the golden past of snooker, figures like Wilson represent the future of a game whose populaity continues to reach new territories outside of the UK.

He does not expect ‘Gentleman’ Joe Perry, the world number 10, to doff his cue to him during their best-of-19 frames first-round meeting that starts out on Wednesday night.

“Against the top players you don’t get many chances, and you have to make the most of them," says Wilson. "It is as simple as that.

“At the top end of the game, if you were to play the player and not the balls, you’d be beaten before you started. You have to play the table, and try and focus on the balls.

“I think you have to win your first tournament to set yourself free as a player. Confidence-wise, I’ve gone through the roof.

“I want to win a tournament in the UK, and I’m here to win this tournament.”

Wilson has apparently wallowed in career earnings of around £280,000 over the past four years, but is a richer person for his experiences away from the table.

He should be aware that he can't really lose whether or not he conquers the Crucible.