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Snooker star Kyren Wilson has launched a social media tirade after feeling his status as world champion is being disrespected by consistently finding himself demoted from the main TV table at tournaments.
In the early rounds of most snooker ranking events, there are up to eight matches played simultaneously with the main table (often called table one) in the most prominent position in the arena, surrounded by TV cameras and the match shown live on the main channel of whichever broacaster has the rights for the tournament.
Tables two, three, four etc will be in less prominent positions in the venue and those matches will usually only be available to watch on the online streaming service of the host broadcaster, if available at all, and often with no commentary – meaning far fewer viewers, less exposure for the players involved and sometimes different table conditions.
Deciding which matches to show on the main TV table is an art rather than a science, with popular players such as Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump almost always playing on table one but other choices being a judgement call for the broadcaster.
As current world champion, after his victory at the Crucible Theatre back in May, world No 2 Wilson feels he should be playing more regularly on the TV table and lashed out on social media following his last-16 defeat on table two to world No 37 Elliot Slessor at the British Open in Cheltenham this week.
On his Instagram Stories, Wilson fumed: “Same s*** different day, demoted to table 2 again and get found out! What benefits does a world champion get nowadays? Graveyard shift in Brentwood, table 2 in Saudi every game whilst being the number 1 seed there! table 2 tonight in Cheltenham and being the highest ranked in the session... unfortunately nothing ever changes with the sport I love, if your face doesn't fit... tough”
Wilson lost 4-2 to Slessor on Thursday evening, with four-time world champion Mark Selby’s match against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (which was ultimately a 4-3 epic) chosen to go on table one and shown live on ITV4. The Wilson-Slessor clash was relegated to table two and coverage available only on the broadcaster’s online streaming platform ITVX.
The world champion’s previous two matches in Cheltenham – a 4-1 victory over Duane Jones in the last 64 and his 4-0 beatdown of Marco Fu in the last 32 – were both on the TV table but that didn’t stop him from airing his anger at Thursday’s decision.
The 32-year-old Wilson also complained in his post about being put on the “graveyard shift” at last week’s English Open in Brentwood, where he lost in the third round to Barry Hawkins in a game that finished after midnight due to being the second match in the evening session.
The Saudi event he referred to was the lucrative Saudi Arabia Masters in Riyadh earlier this month, where he was defeated 6-4 in the last 16 by current world No 38 Jimmy Robertson.
However, Wilson has already won a ranking event this season to cement himself at No 2 in the world, behind only Judd Trump, by triumphing at the Xi’an Grand Prix in China last month – defeating Trump 10-8 in an entertaining final having downed O’Sullivan in the semi-finals.
