Adam Williams presents his prediction for the Scottish Open snooker match.
Jamie Jones
Two of the three Jones will compete against each other in the first round of the Scottish Open. Jak Jones secured a spot in the main draw due to his position within the top 16, while Jamie Jones advanced by defeating Oliver Lines (4-3). Although, the season is going poorly for Jamie. Out of nine qualifying matches, he has won only three. He suffered defeats to Haris Tahir (5-3), Lei Peifan (4-3), Ross Muir (4-1), and even in the UK Championship qualifiers, he lost to the women's world champion Bai Yulu (6-4). Jamie's low level of success has left him ranked only 98th in the seasonal rankings, and he must strive to improve his position in the overall rankings during the latter half of the season.
Jak Jones
Jak Jones is faring much better. He reached the quarter-finals of the British Open, where he narrowly lost to Oliver Lines (5-4). However, he had an unexpected defeat to Stan Moody (4-0) in Belfast, and experienced losses to Simon Blackwell (6-5) in the International Championship qualifiers, and to Ishpreet Singh Chadha (4-3) in the English Open qualifiers. Jak is ranked 28th in the seasonal rankings, having accrued most of his points from being in the top 16 and thus entering the main draw of several tournaments.
Jak Jones vs Jamie Jones Prediction
In the clash between the two Joneses, Jak is, of course, the favourite. The last encounter between the Welshmen was in the 2022 Scottish Open, where Jamie emerged victorious with a 4-2 win. Given the instability in performances from both players and their several losses to lower-ranked snooker players, we predict that the match will be a hard-fought contest. We expect the encounter to be lengthy and contain at least six frames.
