Jak Jones headed into his first World Snooker Championship final blasting his “pathetic” rivals for putting their own demise down to his attritional style of play.
The 30-year-old became only the ninth qualifier to reach a Crucible final after securing a 17-12 win over Stuart Bingham late on Saturday night.
According to World Snooker Tour’s seasonal average shot times, Jones is the 107th slowest of 128 players on the tour, with each shot taking over 28 seconds. Only Zhang Anda in this year’s tournament was slower.
And both Bingham and Judd Trump, whom the Welshman beat in the last eight, implied his frustrating tactics had affected their rhythm and ultimately contributed to their defeats.
But Jones retorted: “It seems like a common excuse that these players use against me. They are supposed to be the best players in the world but they are moaning about being knocked out of their rhythm.
“I don’t think 28 seconds a shot is slow for my first semi-final. Other players regularly go down to their late 20s but they always have to say the same thing after they lose against me.
“They just can’t accept it. It’s pathetic really, isn’t it. The worst thing I’ve noticed when I’m playing 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 bother me. It is easy to blame what I am doing but it is working so I will take it.”
Jones, who came through two qualifying rounds and had never previously reached a ranking tournament final, was due to get underway against 12th seed Kyren Wilson on Sunday afternoon.
Wilson, who was beaten by Ronnie O’Sullivan in his previous final appearance in 2020, pulled away for a 17-11 win over another qualifier, David Gilbert.
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