Kyren Wilson becomes shocking new victim of Crucible Curse as he fails to live up to vow

Kyren Wilson became the 20th victim of the Crucible Curse. 33, was the after his dramatic 10-9 defeat to Chinese debutant Lei Peifan late last night.

Wilson, who battled back from 9-6 down to force a decider, watched his treasured trophy slip away as giant-killer Lei, 21, scored a seismic scalp in an epic at the sport's spiritual Sheffield home. World No.2 Wilson vowed to break the infamous hoodoo, where no first-time champion has successfully defended the title, at his champion’s press conference last year.

And the Warrior even went so far as to taunt the unforgiving Snooker Gods with a video on social media in the build up to his defence —where he smashed a mirror, opened an umbrella indoors and had a black cat walk past him — all regarded as bad luck omens.

Wilson said: "I'm obviously devastated. I gave it my all. I had everything going against me. I don't know what went wrong.

"The table let me down in the decider, but every credit to Lei Peifan on his debut."

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Scottish Open champion Lei amazingly fouled with his first ever shot in the Crucible cauldron when he potted the blue off the break off.

Wilson went on a six-frame burst with breaks of 136, a pair of 82s and 66 to lead 6-2 before Lei pinched the final frame of the first session. But the venue where Wilson realised his boyhood dreams 12 months ago became a Theatre of Nightmares as Lei made it seven frames in a row to lead 9-6 with runs of 50, 60, 75, 89, 69, 92.

‘Warrior’ Wilson lived up to his nickname as he stopped the rot with a century, won the 17th frame on the black, and stood up when it mattered most with a 60 visit to force a decider. But Lei held his nerve with a break of 66 to get over the line.

"He's a very, very, very good match player, with a fantastic temperament," said on TNT Sports when asked about the Chinese.

"I must say when he first came on the scene I played him a couple of times, I thought 'this geezer cant play'. He's one of them you think he's going nowhere. His cue action was all under one thing, he was missing a lot of balls. He won [the Scottish Open] and now every time you watch him play you think he's a handful for anyone."

Earlier in the day, Mark Williams withstood the second greatest scoring streak in Crucible history to lead Wu Yize 5-4 overnight. The Chinese qualifier, 21, rattled in an impressive 466 points without reply, second only to John Higgins' 485-point spell against Anthony Hamilton in 2000.

Qualifier Chris Wakelin is three frames away from his first ever Crucible win after he opened up a commanding 7-2 lead over 2010 winner Neil Robertson.

China’s Xiao Guodong resumes 7-2 ahead of Matt Selt and Barry Hawkins leads Hossein Vafaei 5-4.