World Championship final: Kyren Wilson ready for ‘whatever is thrown’ at him by Jak Jones

Prior to Sunday, only eight qualifiers have previously reached the World Championship final at the Crucible.

Canada’s Cliff Thorburn was the first in 1977, while China’s Ding Junhui was the most recent in 2016.

However, Jones now has the opportunity to emulate fellow Welshman Terry Griffiths (1979) and England’s Shaun Murphy (2005) after coming into the tournament as a 200-1 outsider.

While he expects his law student wife Inna, who he met while playing in the Riga Masters in Latvia, to attend what will remarkably be his first ever appearance in a ranking final, he is unsure whether his mother will also make the journey because of nerves.

“She might come up to wash my shirts or something, like she did for the previous match,” Jones said.

“She stayed up a couple of nights back, washed my shirts and went home the next morning. She can’t watch it live. She’ll watch it back if I’ve won afterwards.

“She has never been able to watch. Me and my dad have always gone around together and nobody else has ever really come.”

Jones, 30, who is nicknamed the Silent Assassin, turned professional in 2010 and first competed against Wilson at Q School 13 years ago.

However, his journey to the brink of a world title has included plenty of setbacks, including dropping off the main tour.

“Because I have had so much disappointment in my career so far, I don’t get too excited,” he added.

“When I win it feels just like job done because it is what I have been practising for all my life. It doesn’t feel as good as it should do, maybe.”