A tenacious Jones drew with Bingham
In the first game of the World Championship semi-finals, Giant Killer Jack Jones came back from a 3-0 deficit to Stuart Bingham to level 4-4.
When Bingham had a chance to take a 4-0 lead, missing the winning blue in the fourth game allowed Jones to get his feet on his feet and eventually chase it to a 4-4 draw. They will play three more stages on Friday and Saturday, with the first 17-inning winner to advance to the final against Kyren Wilson or David Gilbert for the title.
The world No. 44 Jones is competing in the semifinals of the World Championships for the first time and is aiming to become the lowest-ranked world champion since Shaun Murphy, who was ranked 48th in 2005. The 30-year-old Welshman has eliminated Anda Zhang, Si Jiahui and Judd Trump for the second time in his career to reach the semi-finals of a ranking tournament.
Bingham lifted the trophy in 2015 and hopes to become the seventh player to conquer Crucible more than once, after Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Higgins and Selby. The 47-year-old beat O'Sullivan on Wednesday night to reach his third Sheffield semi-final.
Bingham scored 76 points in a single stroke to take the lead, and then in the second game he caught Jones and lost the top pocket red ball in the upper right corner when he scored 27 points. In the third game, Bingham first led 49-36, and then used the last red ball on the table to make snooker difficult for his opponent, Jones made a mistake, and he took a 3-0 lead. He was on the verge of extending his lead when he called a blue ball error in the fourth inning, leading by 37 points with two red balls remaining. Jones pulled off a brilliant 40-point comeback. He scored a series of difficult goals during that time, and then pricked up his ears as the crowd applauded his resilience.
In the fifth game, Bingham got the first chance, but when he played a single stroke of 20 rounds, Jones responded with a single stroke of 66 points to chase the score to 2-3. Soon after, the giant killer equalized and he won a defensive battle and dominated on the last red ball of the 6th game.
Bingham finally held back a wonderful 79 points in a single stroke after losing three games in a row, and turned the 7th game around. Jones missed the corner bag blue ball with a 44-1 lead. In the last game, Bingham scored 15 points and hit a difficult black ball that missed the middle pocket, and Jones took over the table and contributed 72 points in a single stroke to equalize the score again. The duo will return to the stage at 10:30 p.m. on Friday night. (Welcome to click to pay attention to Runwu AB)