Kyren Wilson v Stan Moody live stream | World Snooker Championship 2026 preview
Wilson is aiming to avoid a second straight first-round exit at the Crucible (Credit: Every Second Media/Alamy Live News)
Kyren Wilson aims to avert a second successive first-round exit at the World Snooker Championship when he faces teenage debutant Stan Moody.
One of the standout ties in the opening round sees a former champion to battle with a player making his Crucible bow.
Wilson enjoyed an emotional victory in 2024, four years after he was runner-up to Ronnie O’Sullivan, beating Jak Jones 18-14 in the final.
However, the Warrior fell victim to the dreaded ‘Crucible Curse’ 12 months ago, suffering a 10-9 defeat against Lei Peifan on the opening day.
That represented only his second first-round defeat in 11 appearances in Sheffield, with the other coming on his 2014 debut.
Despite winning the Shanghai Masters and Masters, Wilson has endured an inconsistent 2025-26 season – during which he has not been past any ranking event quarter-final, while also failing to qualify for the Players Championship and Tour Championship.
Nevertheless, his fairytale triumph of two years ago came off the back of a generally modest campaign. Therefore, he will be hoping for similar fortunes at the venue where he has also reached two semi-finals, as well as compiling a maximum break in 2023.
His opponent will seek inspiration from Lei as he also looks to beat the Warrior on debut at the Crucible.
That is the task awaiting Moody, who is set to walk down the famous steps for the first time, though his chances of doing so appeared fairly bleak a week ago.
The 19-year-old was hospitalised after contracting tonsilitis, with doctors advising him not to participate in the qualifying rounds at the English Institute for Sport.
Nevertheless, Moody subsequently discharged himself before enjoying victories over Robbie Williams and Jiang Jun to achieve his latest career landmark.
Already up to 44th in the WST rankings, he also has previous experience of beating Wilson, having prevailed 4-2 in their most recent encounter at this season’s British Open.
Moody will look to do so again over the best of 19 frames, while the world number two aims to avoid becoming another scalp, with Mark Allen awaiting the winner in the last 16.
The match breaks off at 10am BST on Monday with the opening nine frames, before playing to a finish at 7pm later that day.
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