Judd Trump's dreams of winning a second Cazoo World Championship crown were smashed by world number 44 Jak Jones who won 13-9 to record the biggest ever quarter-final shock at the Crucible.
World number two Trump arrived in Sheffield on the crest of a wave having won five ranking titles this season and was rated second favourite for the title after Ronnie O'Sullivan, but struggled to find any fluency against gritty Jones and made too many unforced errors. From 8-7 ahead, Trump lost six of the last seven frames, and his highest break in the concluding session was just 22.
Welshman Jones, age 30, was playing in only the fourth ranking event quarter-final of a pro career which dates back to 2010. He clearly loves the Crucible as he reached the last eight here last year, knocking out Neil Robertson before losing to Mark Allen. Calm under pressure with an excellent safety game, Jones also made several high quality breaks in the closing stages and finished with a century.
He is into his second ranking event semi-final, the only previous one coming at the 2022 Gibraltar Open, and will face O'Sullivan or Stuart Bingham over 33 frames on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Jones is already guaranteed £100,000, by far his biggest pay day, and if he reaches the final he'll be into the world's top 16.
Massive Crucible Shocks
The Biggest Sheffield Upsets
Tony Knowles 10-1 Steve Davis (First round 1982)
Joe Johnson 18-14 Steve Davis (Final 1986)
Stuart Bingham 10-7 Stephen Hendry (First round 2000)
David Gray 10-9 Ronnie O'Sullivan (First round 2000)
Michael Wasley 10-9 Ding Junhui (First round 2014)
Rory McLeod 10-8 Judd Trump (First round 2017)
James Cahill 10-8 Ronnie O'Sullivan (First round 2019)
Jak Jones 13-9 Judd Trump (Quarter-finals 2024)
Trump led 27-15 in the opening frame today when he missed the pink to a top corner, and Jones punished him with 40 to go 9-8 ahead. A scrappy 18th frame went Trump's way, but it was Jones who grew in confidence as a break of 87 put him 10-9 ahead. In frame 20, Trump trailed 10-24 when he missed the pink off its spot, and again his opponent took advantage with 61.
Another clear scoring chance went begging for Trump in the 21st as, trailing 18-7, he overcut a short range yellow to a baulk corner. The frame came down to the last red and Jones, leading 53-21, slotted in a mid range pot for 12-9. Yet another error from Trump early in the next, going in-off after potting the blue on 21, proved his last shot as Jones finished in style with a 106.
"Judd struggled - from 4-4 he seemed to go into his shell and I picked up on that," said Jones, who won the European Under-19 title during a promising junior career before turning pro aged 16. "He made a century in the first frame and that seemed to motivate me as I knew I would need to play well. Maybe it was pressure, but Judd didn't seem to play the way he usually does. I just tried to keep calm and I have learned that from previous matches here. And something I have learned from Judd is not to get down on myself if I make a mistake.
"I only slept for two hours last night, but the adrenaline of this event keeps you going. I don't know how I would feel if I play Ronnie next, but I am trying to just play snooker rather than thinking about the whole situation. My dad is here with me and he is a very calming influence. He has been there with me since my junior days and he never gets too down when I lose or excited when I win. We don't even talk much about snooker!"
Trump said: “I struggled. I had chances but I couldn’t get rhythm. Every time I came to the table, it felt like I had been away from it for ages and I wasn’t able to get into that flow. Maybe I should have been more attacking in the first couple of sessions. Maybe I played it into his hands. I was slower than I would have liked.
“I had more than enough chances today to win so I only have myself to blame. Every time is tough coming here. It’s a gruelling schedule, playing last night and then again the following morning. But it's the same for both players and Jak dealt with it a lot better than I did. I missed too many easy balls."
Meanwhile, John Higgins came from 9-4 down to just 9-7 going into tonight's final session of his match with Kyren Wilson. Higgins' late rally boosts his hopes of remaining on track for a fifth world title.
The Scot took a scrappy 49-minute opening frame today to trail 5-4. Wilson - runner-up here in 2020 - pulled away by taking four in a row with top breaks of 94 and 53 for 9-4. But a run of 73 gave Higgins frame 14, and he took a dramatic 15th on the final black, before adding the last of the session to trail by just two. They resume at 7pm, with the winner to face David Gilbert or Stephen Maguire.