Hossein Vafaei smashed into the balls from his opening break as he fell 6-2 behind to Ronnie O’Sullivan in their second-round match at the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible.
The Iranian had been strongly critical of O’Sullivan in the buildup to the match, the pair having clashed at a German Masters qualifying tie in 2021 in which Vafaei said he felt disrespected by O’Sullivan playing a wild break-off shot.
Vafaei responded by repeating the tactic at the start of the second frame, but it came at a cost as O’Sullivan responded with a break of 78, mirroring his score in the first frame as the reigning champion opened a 2-0 lead.
The former world champion Steve Davis was strongly critical of Vafaei’s decision, calling it “disrespectful to the game of snooker”.
Speaking on the BBC, Davis said: “It’s not good to see. I don’t think it is necessarily disrespectful to Ronnie, but it is maybe considered disrespectful to the game of snooker and the people who come along to watch, and want to see a great game. It’s not nice, it’s not good. It’s not a personal game, snooker, your problem is the table and the balls, not your opponent.”
Vafaei responded with a break of 64 to win frame three, to the amazement of Davis, who added: “Hossein Vafaei is not cut from the same lump of wood as me. How can you smash the balls up in a world championship? I don’t understand how you can then play great in the next frame.
“What type of brain can do that? I don’t know where he’s coming from, but bloody hell, to win that frame after embarrassing yourself – how on earth can you concentrate after that?”
O’Sullivan fired in breaks of 69 and 51 to win the fourth frame and ensure he took a 3-1 advantage into the mid-session interval.
After the break O’Sullivan rattled off the next three frames to open up a 6-1 lead before Vafaei gave himself a lifeline by taking the last. The pair resume the contest on Saturday.
Luca Brecel held his nerve to the reach the quarter-finals for the first time with a 13-11 victory over Mark Williams. The Welshman, champion in 2000, 2003 and 2018, looked to have turned the tide when he fought back from 11-8 behind to draw level in a gripping second-round clash. But Brecel, the world No 10, made a break of 84 to edge back in front, before taking the match with a run of 67.
The Belgian is the first player through to this year’s Crucible quarter-finals, where he will meet O’Sullivan or Vafaei. Williams, the No 8 seed, became the the third former world champion to bow out inside the tournament’s first week, following Judd Trump (No 5) and Shaun Murphy (No 4). These three are all in the same side of the draw, leaving O’Sullivan as the only player left in that half to have won the title.
Mark Allen, meanwhile, moved to within touching distance of the quarter-finals after a dominant second session against Stuart Bingham. Allen, 5-3 ahead overnight, won seven of the eight frames and requires one more frame on Saturday morning to progress.
Bingham prevented his opponent from winning with a session to spare by compiling a century in frame 16, but he still trails 12-4. Allen has been the form player this season, winning three ranking titles including the UK Championship, and has risen to world No 3, though his record at the Crucible is poor.
Neil Robertson faces a battle to stay in the tournament, as he trails the Welshman Jak Jones 10-6 going into Saturday afternoon’s final session of their match. The Australian, the No 6 seed, has had a very poor season but looked in great form in seeing off the Chinese Wu Yize 10-3 in the first round. But his Crucible record since winning his only world title in 2010 is modest, and he has often begun his campaigns in fine style before stumbling in the second round or quarter-finals.
Jones, the world No 52, beat the experienced campaigner Barry Hawkins in qualifying and then the two-time runner-up Ali Carter impressively in the first round, as he looks to reach the quarter-finals on his Crucible debut.
