In this like jones have time to Reach snooker’s biggest stage But the Welshman has made his presence felt since stepping into the Crucible. The 30-year-old tried nine times and failed to qualify for World Snooker Championship before finally succeeding last year – but Jones has rapidly established himself As a Sheffield specialist.
However, the Welshman’s aggressive style of play has not been to everyone’s liking. As Jones reached his first World Championships final, he drew “pathetic” criticism from opponents Stuart Bingham and Judd Trump, who he said had affected their rhythm and ultimately contributed to their defeat.
According to world snooker In the Tour’s seasonal average shot time, Jones is the 107th slowest out of 128 players on the Tour, with each shot taking more than 28 seconds. Only Zhang Anda was slower in this year’s tournament. But he replied: “This seems to be a common excuse these players use against me. He is considered the best player in the world but he is suffering from losing his rhythm.
“I don’t think 28 seconds is a slow shot for my first semi-final. Other players regularly reach the 20s, but they always have to say the same thing after losing against me.
“They just can’t accept it. It’s really pathetic, isn’t it? The worst thing I’ve noticed when I’m playing with them is that I feel like they want to play that game. I couldn’t believe how Judd was playing against me – he completely changed as a player.
“It doesn’t matter to me. It’s easy to blame what I’m doing but it’s working so I’ll take it.
Jones is only the ninth qualifier to reach the Crucible final and has reached the ranking event quarterfinals only twice in his career, starting in the 2023 edition. Prior to this, the pinnacle of his achievements was the semi-finals of the now-defunct Gibraltar Open. For a player who had a complete game and ideal temperament, it seemed strange that Jones had yet to really make his mark.
But the longer matches provided by the World Championship suit a composed character nicknamed ‘The Silent Assassin’. Wins over Ali Carter and Neil Robertson took him to the last eight ahead of his Crucible debut Lost to Mark Allen 13-10 in a tight quarter-final, a run which marked the Cwmbran-born Potter as a player to watch for the future.
The deep run did not immediately provide a springboard into the 2023/24 season. In seven events this campaign, Jones progressed past the second round only once – on home soil at the Welsh Open – and the momentum gained from his last-eight appearance was lost.
Yet he has once again saved his best snooker for when it matters most. If the encounter with snooker’s in-form player in the quarter-finals feels like the potential endpoint of another exhilarating run, victory over trump Reaching the single-table set-up was testament to Jones’ big-match bottle.
“I haven’t really thought anything about it,” Jones said after that last-eight win. “I’m just playing snooker like I do every day at the club, obviously it’s a bit different there, I’m just trying not to think about it… just play snooker.”
Only twice before had a qualifier won the World Championships at the Crucible, Terry Griffiths’ feat in 1979, repeated by a young Shaun Murphy in 2005. Jones will bid to join the exclusive group this weekend, having joined snooker after a chance encounter with 1994 World Championship semi-finalist Darren Morgan while on holiday in Cornwall.
Noticing his natural putting talent, his fellow Welshman encouraged him to join a club upon returning home. Morgan has advised his former disciple to build further from here.
Morgan explained, “I think it’s going to be Jack’s year, there’s no one playing better than him and that’s for sure.” BBC Radio Wales. “As long as he can hold himself together, I think he’ll be fine.
“He is a very good customer, he is very quiet and quite reserved. He has been married in the last 12-14 months and runs his business properly, he is a work horse. The boy practices and practices, there has been no change from when he was with me at my club to where he is today. You only get out what you put in, if you keep knocking on that door, one day that door will open.