Ronnie O’Sullivan takes commanding lead after Vafaei’s ‘disrespectful’ break

Hossein Vafaei smashed into the balls from his opening break as he fell 6-2 behind to Ronnie O’Sullivan in their second-round match at the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible.

The Iranian had been strongly critical of O’Sullivan in the build-up to the match following a German Masters qualifying tie in 2021 in which Vafaei said he felt disrespected by O’Sullivan playing a wild break-off shot.

Vafaei responded by repeating the tactic at the start of the second frame, but it came at a cost as O’Sullivan responded with a break of 78, mirroring his score in the first frame as the reigning champion opened a 2-0 lead.

The former world champion Steve Davis was strongly critical of Vafaei’s decision, calling it “disrespectful to the game of snooker”.

Speaking on the BBC, Davis said: “It’s not good to see. I don’t think it is necessarily disrespectful to Ronnie, but it is maybe considered disrespectful to the game of snooker and the people who come along to watch, and want to see a great game. It’s not nice, it’s not good. It’s not a personal game, snooker, your problem is the table and the balls, not your opponent.”

Vafaei responded with a break of 64 to win frame three, to the amazement of Davis, who added: “Hossein Vafaei is not cut from the same lump of wood as me. How can you smash the balls up in a world championship? I don’t understand how you can then play great in the next frame.

“What type of brain can do that? I don’t know where he’s coming from, but bloody hell, to win that frame after embarrassing yourself – how on earth can you concentrate after that?”

O’Sullivan fired in breaks of 69 and 51 to win the fourth frame and ensure he took a 3-1 advantage into the mid-session interval.

After the break O’Sullivan