Judd Trump says Jak Jones did him a favour with shock Crucible defeat

01/05/2024 15:02

Judd Trump reckons Jak Jones did him a favour by knocking him out of the World Snooker Championship, because if he were to continue his form into a meeting with Ronnie O’Sullivan he would take a severe hammering.

Jones sprung a huge surprise by beating Trump 13-9 in the Crucible quarter-finals, booking his place in the last four for the first time.

The Ace came into the event heavily fancied after a brilliant season which saw him win five ranking titles, and despite two fairly comfortable wins over Hossein Vafaei and Tom Ford he never really found his best form.

Over 22 frames against Jones he made just one century and two half-centuries, showing that his usually prolific scoring was a shadow of its usual self.

Many had expected a blockbuster semi-final with Ronnie O’Sullivan to come this week, but Trump says if he took on the Rocket in this form, it would have been an embarrassing three days to come.

‘It's not easy to have a good run here,’ he said. ‘On paper, I would have been the favourite to beat him and then play Ronnie. To be honest, he did me a favour because I would have lost 17-0 playing like that.

‘To be honest, from then start of this whole tournament, I played okay the first session, I didn't play great against Tom. The belief of every session was slowly going. In the end it took someone playing half decent who was always going to beat me.’

Trump felt he did not play at the pace around the table he would have preferred to, while he was also tired on Wednesday morning after playing in the Tuesday evening session as well.

Clearly far from ideal, but he did point out that Jones had the same situation to deal with and handled it more impressively.

‘Every time is tough coming here,’ he said. ‘It's a gruelling schedule, playing last night and then again the following morning. Very tiring. Quite flat. Same for both players. Jak dealt with it a lot better than I did.

‘It would have helped not playing this morning, to have more time off, but Jak still played pretty well. It's difficult. I was very tired. It's not my pace of play.

‘Last night was very tiring, playing in the morning and at night. If I was playing well and at my own pace, then I would have been done and dusted early. It went on late last night. I didn't sleep very good. I missed too many easy balls today.’

Asked if he felt the world number 44 could continues springing surprises and go on to become world champion, Trump is not convinced.

Jones will take on either O’Sullivan or Stuart Bingham in the next round and Trump sees either as an uphill struggle.

Asked if Jones has the game to win the tournament, Trump said: ‘Honestly, I don't think so. I would be happy if he does, he's a nice kid, I would be very happy for him.

‘Whoever he plays he’s going going to struggle. But the way he's scoring and if he played a bit more free-flowing, I think he could certainly have a chance.’

MORE : Ronnie O’Sullivan struggling to spark in Stuart Bingham Crucible quarter-final

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