RHYS Clark’s fearless snooker paid dividends as he produced arguably the biggest win of his young career in the English Open last night.

Having had a walkover against Jamie Jones and beaten Wales’ Lee Walker 4-2, Clark had already recorded his best result at a ranking event by reaching the third round at EventCity, Manchester. 

But the Stonehouse cueman stepped it up another notch as an aggressive style of play and some exquisite long-potting helped him down world No.16 Kyren Wilson 4-3 in dramatic circumstances.

Wilson led 2-0 before the Scot roared back with breaks of 64, 57 and 72 to move within one of victory and looked set to seal the win when leading by 35 points with only a possible 35 remaining in frame five. 

But the Englishman – who won his first ranking event at the 2015 Shanghai Masters – levelled the match at 3-3 before a back-and-forth decider eventually saw Clark sink the final pink and black to book a spot in the last 16.

His results this week should see Clark climb the world rankings, where he currently sits at number 73.

The 22-year-old only turned professional at the start of last season but is clearly on an upward trajectory within the sport and Wilson acknowledges that the youngster’s attacking style of play makes him an incredibly dangerous opponent.

“It’s hard to assess my own performance because although I started off very well, I let Rhys play from 2-0 up,” explained Wilson.

“I shouldn’t have let him play because he goes for absolutely everything. He’s one of those players who when he starts finding his range, as he did in this match, he’s very hard to stop. 

“He did enough to put me under pressure throughout and he went for a mad long pink at the end, knocked it in at 100 mph, went around the table and landed perfectly on the black. That was that!

“Against someone like Rhys – who goes for everything – you have to just play your own game and keep things tight. But I just found that I kept leaving him absolutely perfect. 

“It’s completely my own fault that I lost but good luck to Rhys – I wish him the best moving forward and he looks like a good player.”

Watch the English Open LIVE on Eurosport 1 and Quest, featuring daily studio analysis from Ronnie O’Sullivan, Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.