Jak Jones’ first title puts nightmare experience behind him in quick fashion

Jak Jones landed the first ranking title of his career at the Championship League and it came at the perfect time after a ‘disaster’ at the Crucible in April.

The Welshman beat Dave Gilbert in the final of the Championship League last month to lift the trophy and secure his first professional title.

The 33-year-old memorably reached the World Championship final in 2024, losing out to Kyren Wilson, but now has entered the winners’ enclosure for the first time since initially turning pro in 2010.

It is ideal timing for Jones, who ended last season with a morale-sapping 10-2 thrashing at the hands of Mark Selby in the first round at the Crucible.

Selby made just three half-centuries in a match which Jones admits went about as badly as it could have done, but he is thrilled to put that out of his mind quickly by winning the first ranking event of the new season.

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‘It couldn’t have gone any worse really. How I played, how I felt at the Crucible,’ Jones told Metro. ‘It was a bit of a disaster really.
It’s good to put that to the back of my mind.

‘I’ve experienced the good side of the Crucible and I’ve definitely experienced the worst now.

‘There’s so many different factors, I suppose. You’re playing a Crucible specialist, one of the best players ever. I didn’t feel too good in myself and then you miss a couple of balls and I think it all just got on top of me in the end. Which can happen to anyone, but it certainly got to me.

‘Then obviously it can knock your confidence quite a bit, when you have such a bad experience, a bad performance on the biggest stage. So to then win the first tournament of the new season I think was really big for me.’

It’s been a long journey to his first title for Jones, but it has only been since his amazing run to the Crucible final two years ago that he has been really itching to get his hands on some silverware.

‘When I was in the World final, I didn’t really think that much about winning a tournament. I wouldn’t say I was desperate to win a tournament,’ he said.

‘But after the last couple of years, you feel like you need to go to the next step in your career. You have to win one, otherwise you just feel like you’re stuck.

‘Since the World Championship last season I’ve thought of it a lot, that I need to win a tournament soon. If I’m going to progress in my career, I do feel like I need to win a tournament soon.

‘So to win the first tournament of the season and get it out of the way was good.’

Jones has won tournaments before in his junior and amateur days, but thinks the 10-year gap since a European Championship success in 2016 saw him forget what to do after lifting a trophy.

‘I didn’t celebrate,’ he says. ‘Dylan Emery was also in my group and we just drove straight back home.

‘That was it really. No celebration. I think I’ve forgotten how to celebrate!’

Jones does have plenty to celebrate off the table, having moved into a new house in December and now expecting his second child with his wife later this year.

Back in his hometown of Cwmbran after a spell in Cardiff, Jones is pleased to be settled again, although his Russian wife Inna, from the huge city of Samara, is still getting used to it.

‘Cardiff was a big change for me, but my wife loved it there, we were in the city centre, virtually,’ he said. ‘It was a bit too much for me. She likes Cwmbran, it’s just a lot quieter than what her home city would have been. I think she’s getting used to it, very slowly.’

Next up for Jones, he says: ‘I’m just trying to win another tournament. Now I’ve got one out of the way.

‘It’s so hard now but maybe when I get to the business end of tournaments in future I can be a bit more relaxed than I have been in the past.

‘I think that psychologically, it’s massive. No matter what tournament it is I’ve won, it’s massive to get it out of the way.

‘I’ve been in the final of the biggest tournament and arguably the smallest one. But the thing that I had in my head before was feeling better in longer formats. I guess that’s out of the window now because it doesn’t get much more shorter format than the Championship League.

‘So to win that one, that’s another psychological obstacle out of the way.’

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