Hossein Vafaei stuns Mark Williams to win Snooker Shoot Out and become first Iranian to win ranking tournament

Hossein Vafaei became the first Iranian winner of a ranking tournament when beating Mark Williams in the final of the Snooker Shoot Out. Vafaei, who suffered a family bereavement earlier in the week, produced brilliant play at the Morningside Arena. He kicked off the event with a break of 123, which proved to be the high break of the week and was worth £5,000, and carried that form all the way through.

Ad/> His one scare came in the semi-finals, and he appeared down and out as Liang Wenbo raced into a 48-point lead, but miscued on a routine black. The miscue was so bad, Liang missed the black completely and the foul handed ball-in-hand to Vafaei who made no mistake to book his spot in the final. Shoot OutWilliams eases into last 16 of Snooker Shoot Out, world No.

1 Selby crashes out6 HOURS AGO «It was a diabolical miscue, and devastating for him,” Jimmy White said on Eurosport. „He might even have gone on to make the highest break of the tournament.” In the final, Williams played one shot — the break — and that was it as Vafaei crunched in a long red and picked off a break of 71 to win the title. Johal, Brecel and the Shoot Out flukes of the week Trump handed boost for German Masters defence Williams was bidding to become the first player to win the Snooker Shoot Out and World Championship but like Graeme Dott (twice) and Mark Selby, fell at the final hurdle of doing the snooker equivalent of winning a marathon and the 100 metres.