Iran’s Hossein Vafaei earned a place in the quarter-finals of the MrQ UK Championship for the first time with a 6-1 defeat of Matthew Selt in York.
Victory sees Vafaei keep his hopes of qualifying for the Masters alive. Vafaei will secure his place at Alexandra Palace if he wins his quarter-final against Zhang Anda and Ding Junhui loses his against Mark Williams.
Having come through two rounds of qualifying and scored an impressive 6-4 win over Shaun Murphy in the opening round, Vafaei will feel confident of mounting a title charge. He’s aiming to be the first Iranian winner of a regulation format tournament. Vafaei is already the first ranking event winner from his country, having won the Shoot Out in 2022.
The world number 18 has enjoyed success in York before, having knocked four-time World Champion Mark Selby out in each of the previous two years. On both occasions he bowed out in the last 16, but tonight’s display sees him go one step further.
In a sensational showing of break building, Vafaei hammered home runs of 132, 94, 56, 133 and 121 on his way to an emphatic victory.
“I played fantastic today. It couldn’t be any better than that. I started like a dream. Everyone dreams of starting a match like that. I felt really good and playing like that in front of big fans in the York Barbican is an amazing feeling,” said 29-year-old Vafaei.
“It is so enjoyable. You can’t explain that or teach that. I enjoyed tonight a lot. I scored really heavily and as a player you dream of performing like that in an event like the UK Championship.
“It is just a matter of time. I am from a different country and I need to learn lots of different things to compete with legends. It is tough to get to that level, but I am getting there.
“It would be amazing. If I go all the way it is good for the game, it is good for snooker in the middle east, it is good for all of the players and the snooker market. Something would happen after I won and you would have Dubai open, Saudi open and Qatar open. It is going to happen soon I’m sure.”
On the other table, Zhang scored an impressive 6-4 win over World Champion Luca Brecel to book his place in the last eight.
Zhang is enjoying the season of his career so far, having won the International Championship earlier this month, where he made a 147 in the final and beat Tom Ford 10-6 to capture the title. He was also runner-up to Judd Trump at the English Open.
With the scores locked level at 4-4 this evening, Zhang summoned an impressive burst for the line. Breaks of 124 and 68 gave him two on the bounce and saw him wrap up the win.
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