Phil Haigh
Published February 3, 2026 5:00pm
Updated February 3, 2026 5:01pm
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Masters champion Kyren Wilson feels the scheduling hampers players (Picture: Getty Images)
Kyren Wilson was left ‘disheartened’ with the scheduling of the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong, which started just two days after the German Masters finished in Berlin.
Wilson began his Grand Prix campaign in the first session of the tournament, on Tuesday afternoon, and it came to an immediate halt.
The Masters champion was beaten 5-2 in the opening round by Xiao Guodong, which means Wilson can now not qualify for the Players Championship later this month, which features the top 16 on the one-year ranking list.
The Warrior played his last match in Berlin on Friday afternoon, losing in the quarter-finals to Shaun Murphy, before heading to Hong Kong.
His match was then rearranged to the Tuesday afternoon session and he was less than happy with the scheduling after losing out to an impressive Xiao.
‘I struggled today and Xiao played very, very good. I was just trying to hang on to him,’ Wilson said,’ via the South China Morning Post.
‘I feel bad for this tournament, to be honest. I think the Hong Kong World Grand Prix deserves to be better. Straight from Germany, it’s very, very difficult to arrive here.
Xiao Guodong takes on Ronnie O’Sullivan or Joe O’Connor in the next round (Picture: Getty Images)
‘One or two days’ practice and sleep, and then try to perform in such a fantastic event. I find it a little bit disheartening; it’s quite sad because I think Hong Kong has a very special place on the World Snooker Tour.’
Last season the Grand Prix fell the week after the World Open in Yushan in March, so that was a much shorter trip to make from one event to the next.
‘I think that would work perfectly fine if we’re out here already; it makes sense to do one back-to-back,’ Wilson said. ‘I had to leave my family; we travelled separately, so it was just crazy, crazy scheduling.
‘I was told yesterday that my game had changed to today. I was supposed to be playing tomorrow. So again, poor scheduling.’
Wilson will miss the Players Championship in Telford after defeat to Xiao (Picture: Getty Images)
Judd Trump won the German Masters, beating Murphy 10-4 in Sunday’s final and he plays his opener in Hong Kong on Wednesday, in scheduling he described as ‘not ideal’.
World Snooker Tour responded to the complaints in a statement, reading: ‘We have more big tournaments and higher prize money on our global tour than ever before so inevitably that creates challenges for players who go deep in one event and then travel to the next one.
‘We always take this into consideration in terms of scheduling matches and communicating with those players.’
Mark Selby was in stunning form against Aaron Hill (Picture: Getty Images)
Mark Selby was beaten in the last 32 in Germany last Wednesday, so had more time to prepare for his opener in Hong Kong against Aaron Hill on Tuesday.
The four-time world champion said he was still not at full power, but his game didn’t show that as he romped to a 5-0 win in under 80 minutes with breaks of 60, 100, 82, 94 and 76.
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‘I arrived only yesterday afternoon, and got told only the day before that my game had been changed,’ he said after whitewashing Hill on Tuesday. ‘If I’d have arrived yesterday and played Wednesday, I think I’d have been OK.
‘I didn’t sleep great last night, maybe only two or three hours, but you know, I played good, the game was crazy.’
It is not the first time this season there have been complaints about the tight, globe-trotting schedule, notably when the International Championship finished in Nanjing, China on November 9 and the Champion of Champions began in Leicester the following day.
Murphy was the player feeling most aggrieved in that situation, describing his treatment as ‘despicable’ by tournament organisers Matchroom as he opened the event and lost his first match.
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