Hossein Vafaei makes history despite heartbreak with Snooker Shoot Out win

Hossein Vafaei nearly pulled out of the Snooker Shoot Out after arriving at the event due to the tragic news of his grandmother passing away, but took on the challenge and became the first Iranian to win a ranking title in the sport’s history.

Vafaei was superb throughout the famously raucous one-frame event, making the tournament’s highest break (123) in his very first outing against Peter Devlin.

He then went on to beat Barry Pinches, Allan Taylor, former champion Michael Georgiou, Daniel Womersley, Liang Wenbo and three-time world champ Mark Williams in the final.

However, he nearly didn’t pick his cue up at all after hearing the sad news from home just before the Shoot Out began.

‘When I arrived at this event I nearly pulled out because my grandmother passed away,’ Vafaei told WST. ‘I was in my room crying for one hour for my grandma. My mother and everyone in my family were crying.

‘I decided to play but I didn’t care about winning or losing. I don’t know…an energy came to me, I don’t know how to explain it, and I played fantastic. It was very sad news for me but everyone told me to win it for my grandma, I wanted to do that and I have done it.’

<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>ð @BetVictor Shoot Out Final | HIGHLIGHTS From the very first red ð¥ @hvafaei147 #ClockIsTicking #BVEuroSeries pic.twitter.com/G5FwQBMfli

In the arena in Leicester after claiming the title, Vafaei did well to hold back the tears, telling Eurosport: ‘That is for you grandma. It’s Mother’s Day in Iran and I am very proud I did that.’

The 27-year-old is the top player from Iran and hopes that this will be the first of many titles for him and other players from his country, where snooker is growing in popularity.

‘It’s a big achievement for a country