World Snooker Championship 2024: Jak Jones reaches semis with shock win over out of sorts Judd Trump

ByRichard Newman

Updated 01/05/2024 at 13:11 GMT

In a World Snooker Championship which has been full of shocks, Jak Jones pulled off the latest surprise with victory over Judd Trump in the quarter-finals. The final session of their tie resumed at 8-8 and the Welsh qualifier held his nerve in a scrappy encounter to reach the last four at The Crucible for the first time, beating the world number two 13-9.

Jak Jones pulled off the biggest win of his career by knocking out a lacklustre Judd Trump to reach the semi-finals of the World Snooker Championship for the first time.

Resuming at 8-8, the Welsh qualifier won 13-9 in a final session which was riddled with errors from both players at The Crucible, closing out with a century break. Jones will face the winner of the match between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stuart Bingham.

It was a nervy start, with Jones missing what was described as the “easiest blue ever” during commentary on Eurosport and discovery+. But although Trump had a chance to take advantage, a missed pink allowed Jones back in to take the opening frame 60-27.

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The second frame of the day was just as scrappy, but Trump was keeping Jones at arm’s length. But a gift from the Welshman - a foul while potting the pink - cleared a path for the 2019 winner to level things up again at 9-9 by taking the frame 59-24.

If Trump was hoping that could kickstart a run of form to the semi-finals, that was not immediately the case. Jones bounced back impressively for a man who is yet to reach the last four at the Crucible, with a break of 87 doing the damage to lead the match.

By this point, Trump’s highest break of the session was just 22 and another miss of the pink let Jones back in again. “The interval needs to come for Trump” said Joe Johnson on commentary. Jones was not playing like a man who had come through qualifying and he did the necessary, moving to move to within two frames of victory with another half century break.

• O'Sullivan and Bingham level after opening session, Higgins behind to Wilson

The interval gave both players a chance to re gather their thoughts but the 15 minutes seemed to make little difference to Trump. Jones was also missing, but his higher-ranked opponent missed an easy yellow.

Jones missed two chances to close out the frame, leading to a tense back and forth of each player trying to snooker the other - “this is like watching a horror film” said Dave Hendon on commentary, before the qualifier finally put the world number two away.

Trump now needed to win four straight frames to avoid an early exit, which had not looked likely based on form throughout the session. But another miss on a brown opened the reds up for Jones, who finished with a break of 106.

'These are bad signs' - Trump misses another pink in 20th frame

Wilson blows big lead as Higgins recovers

On the other table, John Higgins - resuming 5-3 down - made a good start in the second session of his last eight tie with Kyren Wilson, taking the first frame of the day to reduce the deficit to one.

But Wilson recovered well, restoring his two-frame lead before a break of 94 took him three ahead. That was his first of a four-frame winning streak which included another half century in the 12th, and a 71-13 margin to extend his advantage.

Once the Jones-Trump match had finished, and the divide between the tables was removed, Higgins began to utilise the full Crucible audience.

It seemed to give the four-time winner a boost, as he found fluency to take the 14th frame with a break of 73 - but still four back from Wilson.

Both players had opportunities to win the 15th, but when Wilson missed a black to restore his lead, it opened up an easy put away for Higgins to win a second successive frame.

Wilson’s rampaging start had run out of steam but Higgins was struggling with his long game. As the session drew to a close the quality of play seemed to be dipping, epitomised by Higgins potting a fluke red after missing another, drawing a shake of the head from his opponent.

“This is an ugly frame” said the commentary team but Higgins eventually got over the line, meaning Wilson goes into tonight's final session just 9-7 ahead.

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