Jak Jones produced a strong display to beat favourite Mark Selby 10-6 and win the 2026 British Open title on Sunday in Cheltenham.
The Welshman secured his second piece of silverware of the 2026/27 campaign already, adding the Clive Everton Trophy to the Championship League Snooker crown he claimed in July.
That previous victory in Leicester represented a maiden win at this level for Jones, but he has quickly backed it up with a glory that’s even more impressive.
Jones, as he had been for several games throughout the week, began as the underdog but was never behind across a hard-fought final showdown.
The 33 year-old led four times in the first session, compiling a brace of 64 breaks and a 54 to repeatedly edge in front only for Selby to fight back on each occasion to restore parity.
The opening salvo ended all-square at four frames apiece, but the trend initially continued when they later returned for the evening bout of play.
When Selby compiled a 100 break in the tenth frame to make it 5-5 – his second century break of the contest – it looked like the ding-dong momentum would never be broken.
But Jones managed to break free from his esteemed opponent by taking the following two frames, including a crucial 12th on the black.
After the last mid-session interval, Selby pulled a frame back as he sustained his efforts to add to his China Open title from last month.
But the four-time world snooker champion looked a spent force, clearly running low on energy after a taxing period on the schedule that included three deciding-frame clashes at the start of this tournament.
A determined Jones, who also beat last week’s Wuhan Open champion Chang Bingyu and Shanghai Masters winner Judd Trump at the Centaur, seized his opportunity.
Contributions of 53 and 62 took him to the brink of glory at 9-6, and the former World Championship runner-up then finished the job in the 16th frame.
The £100,000 champion’s cheque represents one of the biggest paydays of his career and takes Jones back up number 22 in the world rankings list.
He is in a strong position to feature in all three Players Series events later in the campaign, and he will surely now be eyeing the possibility of automatic seeding for the Crucible.
Jones is 18th on the provisional World Championship seeding positions, and with confidence gained from a couple of quick-fire titles, it’ll be interesting to see how frequently he can challenge at the business end of events from now on.
Next up is the English Open, where Jones and Chang were due to meet again in an opening-round clash between the two most recent ranking event winners.
But Jones, whose wife is expecting to give birth to their second child, has opted to withdraw from the week’s action in Brentwood.
Featured photo credit: WST
No, Jak Jones said that he wouldn’t play in Brentwood. Like everyone, I had hoped to see a match between two early-season champions today. Chang Bingyu will get a bye.
Didn’t see the interviews so missed that. Shame.
It’s very understandable he’s withdrawn as a quick turnaround and he’s expecting a second child swiftly.
Jones becomes the sixth Welsh player to win multiple ranking titles. A Welshman has now lifted the British Open in four of the six stagings since the event was revived in 2021.
He’s a much better player than the one who reached the 2024 World Championship final. His scoring power remained a question mark at that point. Since then, Jones’ century per frame ratio has dropped significantly. The all round game he possesses in tandem with a superb temperament suggest he can maintain his position amongst the elite and add further titles.