I spoke to Shaun Murphy about Wu Yize before their meeting at the Masters in January. Murphy told me that he believed Wu would be world champion one day. Most people in snooker will have shared those sentiments. But to be honest, few of us thought it would come this soon.
Wu is the toast of the sporting world after his thrilling World Championship victory, beating Shaun Murphy 18-17 in the final at the Crucible. Wu has been the picture of calm throughout this tournament. I guess it’s probably the fearlessness of youth. What’s the big worry about going for a world title when you’re 22?
Wu looked brilliant from the off here, seeing off Lei Peifan 10-2 in the first round and then claiming a massive 13-11 victory over four-times champion Mark Selby in round two. By that stage, he was definitely being talked about as a potential tournament winner.
Naturally, journalists were trying all the time to find more out about the man. In snooker circles, we’ve been talking about Wu for years but it felt like the wider public was being introduced to him for the first time.
We found out he’s a big fan of playing video games and – unlike plenty of his fellow players – likes watching snooker on television when he’s not out in the middle.
It became a familiar sight to see Wu puffing away on a cigarette around the back of the building, including during the mid-session intervals of his matches.
Wu beat Hossein Vafaei 13-8 in the quarter-finals. He really was looking razor sharp. Remember, this was a player who hadn’t won a match at the Crucible before.
Now came the one-table stage, which always sorts the men from the boys in Sheffield. The watching world thought Wu was done when Mark Allen had a routine black to beat him 17-15.
By now, newspapers were reporting Wu’s background. It became a familiar story that after Wu won the IBSF Under-21 World Championship at the age of 14, his father left his job and moved with his son to Sheffield.
“My parents are the true champions,” Wu said to a huge collective ‘aaahhhh’ from the Crucible crowd.
Wu also said he wanted to go straight to bed on Monday night. We could all relate to that. This is a truly exhausting sporting marathon.
But it’s an exhilarating one too, and we truly do have a special new champion in Wu. He has all the capabilities to be an all-time great in this sport. It will certainly be fun watching his progress.