Jak Jones baffled by ‘pathetic excuses’ of World Snooker Championship opponents

Jak Jones feels beaten opponents are looking for excuses (Picture: Getty Images)

Jak Jones is tired of hearing ‘pathetic excuses’ from his beaten opponents after claims that he knocks players out of their rhythm with slow play.

The 30-year-old is into the World Snooker Championship final where he will take on Kyren Wilson in the most unexpected of Crucible showpieces.

The world number 44 did make the quarter-finals on debut last year, but was not being touted as someone who could go further this time around after a forgettable season on tour.

However, he has beaten Zhang Anda, Si Jiahui, Judd Trump and Stuart Bingham to make it to the final, clearly the better player in each match as all four opponents struggled against him.

Both Trump and Bingham said they found it hard to hit rhythm against him, with the Welshman one of the slower players on tour, which has proved very difficult for his opponents at the Crucible.

Speaking after a 17-12 defeat, Bingham said: ‘He second guesses everything. It’s tough to play, you can’t get any rhythm against him. He sort of looks at every different angle and then plays something completely different. It’s tough to get in any rhythm.

‘He’s very astute round the balls. Plays a lot of negative safety shots. You leave him a long ball and he floats it in. He’s just hard to work out. Judd struggled and I’ve struggled too for three days. It’s just tough.

Stuart Bingham cut a frustrated figure against Jak Jones (Picture: Getty Images)

‘He does play right shots and is pretty attacking in certain parts, but there were a few times when I tried to take the bull by the horns where he would have been happy to play nothing safety shots. I needed to change it up but I came off second. That’s the way it goes sometimes.’

Trump also felt he had no fluency against Jones in a 13-9 loss, saying: ‘It was a little bit slower than I would have liked. I couldn’t get rhythm. Every time I came to the table, it felt like I had been ages and I wasn’t able to get into that flow. It was like starting again every single time I came to the table.

‘A lot of the frames were quite slow. It’s something I should know by now, to control the speed of the game. I got bogged down.

‘His pace definitely affected me. But that’s not his fault. I just needed to get in and clear up every time. I didn’t do that. If you are potting balls then it doesn’t matter how quick your opponent is playing.’

Judd Trump was nowhere near his best against the Welshman (Picture: Getty Images)

Jones has no time for what he considers an excuse from his opponents, feeling that they create the pace of a game as much as he does.

‘I think they’ll probably use that excuse forever,’ he said after beating Bingham. ‘It seems like a common excuse that these players use against me. They’re supposed to be the best players in the world and yet they’re moaning about getting knocked out of their rhythm. It’s strange to me.

‘It don’t bother me. I do think that the players I’ve played…like when I played Judd, he started off typical Judd in the first frame with a century. Then I came back at him, went 3-1 up and I noticed a complete change in his body language. He seemed to take forever on every shot for what Judd usually does. It’s easy to blame what I’m doing, but it’s working so I’ll take it.

‘I have been slow in the past. My natural game is quite fast, I think. But I don’t think 28 seconds a shot is that slow for my first semi-final. Not to say names but other players in the top 16 I see regularly going down to the late 20s.

‘I don’t know what it is, but they always have to say that [they’ve been knocked out of rhythm] after they lose against me. The worst thing is that I’ve noticed when I’m playing out there, I feel like they want to play that game. It’s just an excuse.

‘They can’t accept it [losing]. It’s pathetic really. Just accept it.’

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