World Snooker Championship:
‘Tough to be an Iranian,’ Vafaei says after last-16 progress
Iran’s Hossein Vafaei opened up on the difficulty of playing as an Iranian at the World Snooker Championship amid his native country’s military conflict with the United States and Israel.
Vafaei won all four frames on Thursday to wrap up a 10-3 victory over China’s Si Jiahui and become the first qualifier to reach the second round of this year’s championship in Sheffield, Britain.
“It’s very tough to be an Iranian at this time. It’s like you are lifting 10 people on your shoulders. It’s very hard,” Vafaei said.
Vafaei went into Thursday’s afternoon session with a 6-3 lead after winning five frames on the spin on Wednesday to come from 3-1 behind.
He picked up where he left off, punishing a missed pink from Si to take the first frame of the session 81-22 before winning a safety battle in the next to go 8-3 up. Vafaei continued to punish his opponent’s mistakes in the 12th frame, and a break of 78 took him within a single frame of the second round.
Si attempted to peg him back as he started the next frame strongly, but Vafaei made it nine in succession to book a last-16 meeting with world No. 1 Judd Trump.
“It couldn’t be a better match for fans to watch,” Vafaei said of his clash with Trump, who beat Gary Wilson to advance. “Of course, it’s a tough opponent. I respect him a lot. Hopefully we both show a good performance and everyone enjoys it. Hopefully the game goes the way the fans want.”
Meanwhile, Vafaei claimed the Crucible must be respected and called it snooker’s answer to Wimbledon, two years on from his scathing criticism of the World Championship venue.
In 2024, the Iranian described the Crucible as “smelly” and compared the practice facilities to “playing in a garage.” But after last month’s announcement that snooker’s showpiece will remain in Sheffield until at least 2045, Vafaei highlighted the importance of the Crucible to the sport.
“The Crucible is a historical place. You can’t compare the Crucible to anywhere else because the Crucible is the home of snooker for all snooker players,” said the Iranian.
“The Crucible for us is like the Wimbledon Championships. We have to keep the history and then we have to give it respect, and hopefully we can make it bigger together, like Wimbledon, and we become like tennis as well.”