Kyren Wilson felt the ‘snooker gods were against him’ as the defending world champion fell to a shock 10-9 first-round exit to debutant Lei Peifan.
Wilson arrived at the Crucible in arguably some of the best form of his entire career having won four ranking titles already this season.
And despite a nervy start which saw him lose the opening two frames, the Warrior bounced back to win six of the next seven frames to take a 6-3 lead heading into the evening session.
Lei may be a debutant in this year’s tournament, but the 21-year-old arrived in Sheffield as a ranking title winner having won the Scottish Open in December.
And the Chinese talent demonstrated all that pedigree in the evening session as he won six-straight frames in impressive and unflustered style.
Trailing 9-6 and on the brink of elimination, Wilson found a way back into the contest with a gusty century break to reduce the deficit and brought it back further to 9-8 after taking advantage of some nervy pots from Lei.
And the defending champion took the contest all the way to a shoot-out after a superb shot to release the final red off the cushion helped him secure the 18th frame.
But Lei ultimately held his nerve in the final frame, with the world number 39 securing a famous win with a break of 66 to book his spot in the second round where he will face either Jak Jones or Zhao Zintong.
‘I didn’t feel like I did too much wrong early on in the session. I maybe missed a brown but, other than that, it felt like the snooker gods were against me tonight,’ Wilson told TNT Sports after his defeat.
‘I had it all going wrong but take nothing away from Lei Peifan – he held himself together extremely well as a debutant and I wish him all the best for the rest of the tournament.’
‘The Chinese are slowly taking over the sport and there’s another potential future star.’
Wilson continued: ‘But I’m absolutely gutted. It’s not the way I wanted to end the season. It’s very difficult to prepare for a World Championships with so much media stuff to do in the lead up so I sympathise with all the past champions.
‘I’d have it no other way – it means I won last year and my name is on the trophy – but I’m obviously not happy to have lost.
‘It kind of feels like the season is wasted losing that match, but that’s just the winner in me. I want to win all the time. Looking forward to spending a bit of time with the family now and hopefully I’ve done them proud today and I gave it my all.’
Wilson’s early exit makes him the 20th player to succumb the Crucible curse which has seen every first-time winner unable to reain their world crown since the tournament moved to iconic venue in 1977.
The World No.2 also emulates 2023 champion Luca Brucel who also saw his title defence go up in flames in the first round last year.
Elsewhere on the opening day,three-time world champion Mark Williams battled hard to secure a 5-4 advantage over another young Chinese talent, Wu Yize.
There were impressive displays from Xiao Guodong and Chris Wakelin who both opened up 7-2 leads over their respective opponents, Matthew Selt and Neil Robertson.
Barry Hawkins also holds a slender lead heading into Sunday’s action, with the four-time semi-finalist leading 5-4 over Hossen Vafaei.
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