Ronnie O’Sullivan takes commanding lead after Vafaei’s ‘disrespectful’ break

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 build-up to the match following 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.

On the other table Mark Allen extended his 5-3 overnight lead over Stuart Bingham to 12-4, so will need one more frame when they resume on Saturday morning. 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.