Ronnie O’Sullivan grew to become his so-called Crucible grudge tournament towards Hossein Vafaei right into a demolition task as he gained their second-round tournament on the global championship 13-2 with a consultation to spare. O’Sullivan reeled off six consecutive breaks of fifty or extra, together with his 1,2 hundredth and 1,201st profession centuries, as he gained all seven frames in their tournament on Saturday afternoon.
O’Sullivan made some degree of embracing his opponent, who had issued some abnormal pre-match barbs after which encountered a wave of grievance for enjoying a intentionally rash break-off shot in the second one body on Friday. That wild begin to the second one body set it up on a plate for O’Sullivan, giving him an early merit he mercilessly exploited as he surged right into a quarter-final assembly with Luca Brecel and earned a time off.
“It’s not like I take comments personally, I’ve probably had five or six people saying something over my career that has just inspired me to prove to myself that I can still play the game,” stated O’Sullivan.
“I play between 50 and 100 matches a year and I’ve got to beat everyone. There’s no point getting fixated with one player and what he did. I don’t say anything to him. That little black book is locked up in my mind and just kind of helped me.”
Vafaei, who had accused O’Sullivan of disrespect over an incident in their qualifying match for the 2021 German Masters, missed a blue in the opening frame to set the tone for a one-sided session, as O’Sullivan mopped up to extend his advantage to 7-2.
O’Sullivan followed up by delivering a devastating riposte after Vafaei jawed a green on a break of 59, a hard-earned clearance of 58 giving him the second frame in a fashion that already looked ominous for the Iranian.
Breaks of 68 and 83 helped O’Sullivan soar into the mid-session interval 10-2 in front, and there was little respite for Vafaei as two missed pinks in the next served up O’Sullivan for a frame-winning break of 64.
O’Sullivan stepped up a gear, reaching his historic century mark and repeated the feat in the 15th frame to complete his first win with a session to spare at the Crucible since 2014.
O’Sullivan denied that Vafaei’s wild response to his perceived slight in the second frame had inspired his fully focused performance, insisting the shot meant “nothing to me”, while Vafaei remained unrepentant.
“It was nice for the people everywhere, you see snooker at the top of the news,” he said. “Snooker is just boring players without me, so it’s good to have a good character. It just makes people more interested in the sport.
“This year I lost to the greatest who ever played this game. He said to me: ‘Let’s be friends together again.’ Everything is back like it was before and I wish him to win the tournament because he is too good for this sport.”
Vafaei said he had kept the decision about his controversial break-off – which mirrored the perceived slight dealt out by O’Sullivan in their previous meeting – to himself, but had no regrets about the shot that earned strong criticism.
“Whatever he gave to me, I gave it back,” he said. “I didn’t let anyone know anything before. It was something between me, my God and him.
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“I said to God, please give me that opportunity to put that back to him again. It’s in my mind, I had to take it off my chest and it happened. I just did it to give him back what he gave to me.”
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O’Sullivan issued a chilling warning to his rivals as he indicated he could only improve as he chases an eighth title that would take him clear of Hendry’s record in the list of modern-day greats.
“If that’s what you call box-office, then great,” he said. “It was all right, workmanlike. I’ve played worse and won tournaments, and I’ve played a bit better and won this tournament – I don’t read anything into it.
“I’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve got seven UKs, seven Masters, seven worlds. When you get to my stage you realize you don’t have anything to lose, and you’re only here because you’re enjoying it.
“The people who say I’ve got something to lose are the ones who have something to lose, because their own careers are just going by.”
Neil Robertson misplaced 13-7 to qualifier Jak Jones. The Welshman arrange a quarter-final towards Mark Allen, who beat Stuart Bingham 13-4. Anthony McGill constructed a 7-1 lead over Jack Lisowski whilst Mark Selby leads Gary Wilson 5-3 after final evening’s opening consultation.
