There can never be a wrong time to win your first major title, of course – but events conspired to rob Kyren Wilson of more mainstream media coverage at the weekend.
His achievement was considerable. The 23-year-old from Kettering won a total of nine matches to get his hands on the prestigious trophy in Shanghai for a sensational breakthrough success.
And any player will tell you it feels that much sweeter if you beat one of the big guns in the final, and Judd Trump is certainly that right now – arguably the best player on tour.
Everyone should have been reading more about the thrilling 10-9 win over Trump on the Grand Stage, worth £85,000 to a player rocketing up the ranking as a result to world No22.
But Wilson can blame a few things for that.
A full Premier League football programme with Diego Costa’s brand of contact football grabbing headlines in the Chelsea v Arsenal clash. Andy Murray’s heroics in taking the GB team to a first Davis Cup final for 37 years.
And a home Rugby World Cup that caught fire that weekend with the astonishing victory of Japan over South Africa. Most sports editors, certainly, opted to overlook events in China.
Happily we are more than happy to help redress that shortfall at Inside Snooker, having been able to follow Wilson’s career at close quarters for some years.
And some of his post-match comments about his motivations, including the father he acknowledges to be his hero, also deserve an airing - showing exactly what Wilson is all about.
Last year Wilson showed another side to his talents, being the fastest at World Snooker’s single-seater raceday organised at Silverstone, and clocking the fastest lap at 120mph in cars that went up to 140mph. Trump lost out to him that day as well, along with Michael Holt and Shaun Murphy.
Wilson was a late replacement for Neil Robertson that morning – but the days of not being on the guest list to start with may be over. And proud dad Rob, who suffers with Multiple Sclerosis, was in attendance watching on.
Wilson, who has raised money for MS charities through a sky-dive and other activities, said after his triumph: “I do have a tattoo on my arm, it says ‘Don’t wait for the storm to pass, learn to dance in the rain’.
“My dad is my hero, he has MS and has to battle with things every day. But he uses that not to mope around and get on with life. It is a horrible disease and that motto means a lot to me.”
On his next goals, he added: “Obviously Stuart Bingham won the Shanghai Masters last year, and everyone knows what he went on to achieve last season.
“If I was to follow in Stuart’s footsteps and go on to do well or even win the world title at the Crucible that would be amazing. But it isn’t quite as easy as that! There are so many good players, you have to play so consistently well.
“I will be staying grounded, very players are even guaranteed to get to the Crucible automatically.
“Who knows, though. You need ambitions and dreams, Stuart won here in Shanghai and went to do even greater things, and I would love to do the same.”
Staying grounded is clearly key for any young player making it big, but you sense this might not be a huge problem for Wilson, a new father from a strong family unit and well managed in the past by Paul Mount.
A good player, and what those in the media often call ‘a good talker’ in a purely complimentary sense, Wilson has been dealt a good hand, and many will look forward to seeing how he plays it in the coming years.
Photo courtesy of World Snooker