The quarter-finals at the 2024 World Snooker Championship yielded a very unexpected semi-finals line-up as the all big “favourites” bowed out. Indeed, for the first time since the World Championship is played at the Crucible in 1977, three of the semi-finalists are “qualifiers”, although, one of them, Stuart Bingham, is a former World Champion. Kyren Wilson is the only seed still standing.
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.
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.”
David Gilbert, who was struggling for motivation to even play snooker a few weeks ago, is into the semi-finals of the Cazoo World Championship for the second time after a 13-8 victory over Stephen Maguire.
Having built a 7-1 lead in the opening session on Tuesday, Gilbert was able to nurse his advantage through to the finish line and can now look forward to a huge occasion on Thursday, Friday and Saturday when he faces John Higgins or Kyren Wilson over 33 frames.
Gilbert’s previous appearance in the last four at the Crucible came in 2019 when he battled Higgins all the way before an agonising 17-16 defeat. This time the 42-year-old will hope to go further and, inspired by a new fitness and practice regime arranged by fellow player Andy Lee, clearly believes he can go all the way.
“Five weeks I go I couldn’t even be bothered to play in the qualifiers,” admitted world number 31 Gilbert, who knocked out Luca Brecel and Robert Milkins in the first two rounds. “This would have seemed impossible so it has been an incredible turn around and I feel it’s a massive achievement. I am more confident than ever, for whatever reason, I truly believe in myself. I have proved to myself that I can still play.
“I miss being a top 16 player. I have had times in my career where I have pressed the self destruct button. But the motivation is back now. If I am sitting here on Monday night with the trophy, no one could be more proud.
“I would love to play John Higgins again in the semis. He’s a class act. We had a fantastic game here five years ago and I have thought about it many times. I never thought I would get another chance to walk out there in the one table set up. But I also admire Kyren and the way he turns up at tournaments to win, if I had his belief then I might have won ten titles.“
Tamworth’s Gilbert is into the eighth ranking event semi-final of his career and is chasing his second title, the only other coming at the 2021 Championship League. With Jak Jones already into the last four, this is the first time since 2016 that two qualifiers have reached the semi-finals, and Stuart Bingham could make it three if he beats Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Having led 10-6 overnight, Gilbert had a chance to snatch the opening frame today from 56-0 behind but missed a tough pot on the penultimate red with the rest on 33, and Glasgow’s Maguire took advantage to close the gap. Gilbert dominated frame 18 before Maguire’s 64 in the 19th made it 11-8. Three scoring visits helped Gilbert to win frame 20 to go four up with five to play. After the interval, the Englishman took control of frame 21 with runs of 19 and 20, and after he potted the last red to go 31 points ahead, the handshake soon followed.
Maguire, who missed out on a third semi-final having reached that stage in 2007 and 2012, said: “I felt I just handed it to him, which I hate doing. I don’t know what happened in the first session and it was a long way back from there. I lost all the close frames. I don’t feel I played any quality snooker, I just battled through. Good luck to Dave, he’s a nice kid and we go back a long way. He’ll have to improve. He was there for taking last night and I was disappointed to finish 10-6 because it could have been 9-7.”
Kyren Wilson is through to the fourth Crucible semi-final of his career, after an impressive display saw him overpower John Higgins 13-8 at the Cazoo World Championship.
As he so often does, Wilson has timed his form to hit its peak here at the sport’s biggest event. Despite having only made one prior semi-final appearance this season, at the German Masters, the Warrior has produced his very best to blitz a path to the Crucible semis. So far he has defeated Dominic Dale and Joe O’Connor, as well as Higgins, and he is the last seed left in the event.
Wilson has a tremendous record at the Theatre of Dreams. He first made the semi-finals in 2018, when he lost out to Higgins. The Englishman returned to the last four in 2020, scoring an epic 17-16 win over Anthony McGill to make the final, before being denied snooker’s grandest prize by Ronnie O’Sullivan. Wilson was also a beaten semi-finalist when he faced Shaun Murphy here in 2021. However, the 32-year-old is still hunting an elusive maiden Crucible crown.
To gain a place in this year’s semis he had to overcome a player who he has struggled against in recent times. Tonight’s victory is Wilson’s first against Higgins in four years, since the 2020 World Grand Prix. In the intervening period Higgins won all of their five meetings, including a 13-2 win over Wilson here last year.
Despite suffering defeat, Higgins remains in a strong position to retain his place in the world’s top 16. The four-time World Champion has been in that elite group since 1995 and his stunning 13-12 win over Mark Allen acted as a huge boost to his hopes to stay there.
For much of this encounter, it was Higgins clinging to Wilson’s coattails. The Scot won the last two frames of the opening session to end 5-3 behind and came from 9-4 down to finish the second session trailing 9-7.
When this evening’s play got underway, it was 48-year-old Higgins who cranked up the heat by taking the opener to pull within one at 9-8. However, that would prove to be the last frame won by the Glaswegian in this year’s tournament.
Wilson limited his opponent to just 12 points in the next three frames as he swept to a 12-8 advantage, compiling a superb 101 break in the 20th. Higgins had opportunities in the 21st, but a break of 61 from Wilson got him over the line for a momentous win.
He now faces qualifier David Gilbert in the last four. It will be a repeat of the 2019 German Masters final, which was won by Wilson.
“To come off the back of absolute annihilation from John here last year, I had to put that to one side. There is nothing I can do about the past. I just focussed on what was in front of me. All aspects of my game were really strong. My safety was strong, my long potting was good, I scored when I had to and I made some good clearances. I’m really pleased with where my game is at.”
Kyren Wilson
World Number 12
Wilson added: “The key word, which I keep bringing up, is resilience. If you can keep being resilient, then you can destroy a player’s resolve. That is something I managed to do against John. I lost four frames on the bounce between 9-4 and 9-8 then kicked on with four of my own.
“I think all four players that are left in have a chance. It will be a fascinating watch. It is four players that you wouldn’t necessarily have put in at this stage at the start of the tournament. It is great to see new faces and it is an amazing semi-final lineup.”
Higgins said: “He was too powerful for me. That is the best he’s ever hit the ball continuously against me. He had a couple of little wobbles in the first and second session, but he was far too powerful for me. He played great.”
Just as he did in 2015 on his way to the title, Stuart Bingham floored Ronnie O’Sullivan at the quarter-final stage at the Crucible, winning 13-10 to reach the last four of the Cazoo World Championship.
O’Sullivan’s chances of an eighth title, which would move him one ahead of Stephen Hendry’s total, are over for another year, as he lost seven of the last nine frames having led 8-6. Earlier in the day, Jak Jones registered a seismic shock when he knocked out Judd Trump, and Bingham created another huge upset with victory over snooker’s all-time greatest player.
O’Sullivan had been on course for a career-best season, having won five titles including the UK Championship and the Masters. But his hopes of landing all three Triple Crown events in the same season for the first time are over, and he also loses the world number one ranking which he had held since April 2022. Mark Allen will climb to the top of the official list for the first time in his career and become the 12th player ever to hold that status.
World number 29 Bingham is through to his third Crucible semi-final and is aiming to become only the seventh player to lift the trophy in Sheffield more than once, following Steve Davis, Hendry, Mark Williams, O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Selby. The 47-year-old from Basildon, who beat Shaun Murphy in the 2015 final, will be up against Jones over 33 frames over the next three days. It’s some turnaround for Bingham who has suffered from loss of form and problems with his eyesight in recent seasons and had not previously reached a ranking event semi-final since the 2021 World Grand Prix.
With Kyren Wilson up against David Gilbert in the other semi-final, this is the first time that three qualifiers have made the last four since 1977 (which was the first year at the Crucible, when there were only eight seeds). Bingham is the only man among the quartet who has lifted the trophy before and, with his game slotting into gear, is drawing on memories of his triumph nine years ago.
“I enjoyed going toe to toe with the best player ever, and I can’t believe I came out on top,” said Bingham. “Something clicked at 10-10, I felt great and went for my shots. This place brings the best out of me and I played with a smile on my face, just like I did in 2015.
“I am the only one left who has held that trophy but that doesn’t count for much. Everyone left will think they have a chance. Jak has just knocked out Judd and he obviously loves it out there. I played him in Gibraltar a few years ago and he hammered me 4-0 so I know what he can do. I need a good night’s sleep to be ready for tomorrow.“
O’Sullivan said: “I enjoyed it, and the number one thing for me is to enjoy the game. For the first time in two years I feel like I want to play. I look forward to getting my cue out and the sound of the balls. That’s nothing to do with winning titles. You can’t win them all.“
Here are the scores of that match:
Stuart Bingham played really, really well and Ronnie was never at the top of his game. He hasn’t been for most of the season despite winning five titles. It’s been hard work and he didn’t enjoy it most of the time, but he was surprisingly positive yesterday evening despite the defeat… amongst other things here are the key quotes:
“I’ve had a bit of a worrying couple of years. For me, it’s not the win I’d have liked to have had. But it’s snooker; that’s the way it goes.
“Good luck to Stuart, he played a fantastic match and he deserved his victory. I’m just pleased that I competed and I felt like I was cueing okay. Just a few errors here and there but on the whole, not too bad.”
And before anyone comes here with “it’s a disaster, it’s terrible, it’s awful …” no it’s not, it’s not the result we wanted but that’s sport. Nobody has a divine right to win and nobody can win them all. Ronnie tried hard, it wasn’t to be and the better player on the day won. Am I disappointed? Yes, I am. Is it the end of the world? Absolutely not.
I’m a fan of snooker, just as much as I’m a fan of Ronnie and I think that this unexpected semi-final line-up makes for a very interesting and intriguing final part of the championship.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 