Jaded Jones fails to deal with Wilson's fast start

The Crucible Theatre is unquestionably one of sport's most compact, intimate settings.

- Aaron Bower

So intimate, in fact, that you can almost smell the breath of the players as they make their way around the snooker table. But on occasions here, Jak Jones must have felt like the loneliest person on the planet as his dream slowly eroded into a nightmare.

The Welshman has made history across the past fortnight, joining the exclusive list of qualifiers to reach the final of the World Snooker Championship and impressing so many along the way.

However, Jones is now in the history books for all the wrong reasons after losing control of his maiden world final in the opening session: but all hope is not quite lost yet.

Perhaps it was the fact Jones had to play until late on Saturday evening against Stuart Bingham while his opponent, Kyren Wilson, had already got the job done earlier in the day. There is no question that Jones, who has had to play more than 20 hours more snooker than Wilson to get to the final, looked jaded yesterday afternoon.

Perhaps it is Wilson's prior experience of a final - having admitted in the buildup he drank too much beer and ate too much pizza the night before his 2020 final defeat to Ronnie O'Sullivan - which helped him settle quicker.