Wilson holds off Murphy to set up Wakelin final at Champion of Champions
The in-form man made it 15 straight match wins with a 6-4 semi-final victory in Leicester — racing to 5-1 before closing out with a 110 as Murphy's fightback fell short.
LEICESTER — Kyren Wilson's remarkable winning run goes on. The man in the form of his life made it 15 consecutive match victories on Saturday night, holding off Shaun Murphy 6-4 in the second Champion of Champions semi-final at the Mattioli Arena to book a title decider against Chris Wakelin.
Wilson did the damage early. Breaks of 138, 91, 73 and 92 swept him to a 5-1 lead — and in doing so he ended the most flawless week in Leicester: Murphy had not dropped a single frame in beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-0 and Chang Bingyu 6-0.
The Magician would not go quietly. Three frames on the spin — his first fightback of the tournament — hauled him back to 5-4 and briefly threatened the decider nobody at the Mattioli would have complained about. But Wilson slammed the door in the tenth, compiling a match-closing 110 to seal a 6-4 win.
The victory also snaps a personal hex: Murphy had won the pair's last six meetings, a run stretching back through his 2025 Masters final triumph. Wilson, the reigning Masters champion chasing a third straight title after back-to-back ranking wins at the Northern Ireland Open and International Championship, now stands one match from a first Champion of Champions crown — he was runner-up to Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2018.
Sunday's final is an all-English affair, best of 19 frames for the £150,000 top prize. Wakelin earned his place on Friday, beating two-time champion Neil Robertson 6-2 to reach the first major final of his career; the 34-year-old was whitewashed on his only previous appearance at this event three years ago.
Sources: official CueTracker bracket, TNT Sports live statistics and snooker.org results. See our semi-final one coverage.
