Having beaten Chinese 10-6 and fellow Welshman Dominic Dale 10-4, in his final competitive match before retirement in the prior qualifying rounds this week, victory against Wilson, the highest ranked player in the qualifying is quite the scalp for the Neath potter.
Welshman Wells, 36, led 6-2 but was put under severe pressure from three-time ranking-event winner Wilson, who compiled three half-centuries and a century on his way to levelling at 6-6 in the fourth-round qualifier.
However, Wells now 49th in the world, 32 places below Wilson repeatedly edged back in front in a nip-and-tuck finale and sealed his win following a break of 52.
It represents a stunning success for Wells, who has dropped off the main tour several times since first turning professional in 2008 and been employed cleaning toilets and running a burger van in the past.
He is one of 16 qualifiers to join 16 seeded players in the draw for next weeks tournament at the Crucible theatre, Sheffield that will run between April 19 – May 19. Fellow Welsh interest will be also be seen in seeded duo Mark Williams and Jak Jones.
An emotional Wells said after the contest:
“I don’t know how I held myself together, I couldn’t even stand up.
“I was wondering if it would ever happen. I feel I am good enough to be there and I have worked really hard. It has to be the biggest win of my career. When I was 19 I lost 10-9 to Barry Hawkins in the final qualifying round and I thought the world was at my feet.
“Things haven’t worked out that way and I haven’t come close again until now.”
[Lead image: DerHexer, Wikimedia Commons, CC-by-sa 4.0]
