Ronnie O’Sullivan returns to the baize at the World Snooker Championship on Saturday afternoon as he continues his grudge match against Hossein Vafaei at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
During the first session on Friday, Vafaei committed an extraordinary act of self-sabotage as the Iranian smashed the balls from his first break-off in an ill-judged reaction to perceived disrespect shown to him by O’Sullivan performing the same shot in their last meeting two years ago. O’Sullivan mopped up with a break of 78 and the defending champion went on to fashion a 6-2 overnight advantage in their second-round clash, leaving him an opportunity to wrap up victory with a session to spare.
This came after Vafaei added plenty of spice during the build-up with a series of outspoken comments about seven-time champion O’Sullivan. He hurled verbal barbs at his former friend O’Sullivan, accusing the 47-year-old of “disrespect” following an incident in 2021 German Masters qualifying, and adding: “He’s such a nice guy when he’s asleep.”
Friday evening’s session saw Belgium’s Luca Brecel knock out three-time world champion Mark Williams to become the first man into the quarter-finals, while huge underdog Jak Jones took a shock 10-6 overnight lead against heavily-fancied 2010 champion Neil Robertson into their final session this afternoon.
Follow all the action in our blog below:
