Vafaei enjoys ‘dream’ win over O’sullivan
Iran's Hossein Vafaei edged out Ronnie O'sullivan in a thrilling final frame to reach the quarter-finals of snooker’s World Open in Yushan.
O'sullivan fought back from behind on four occasions, the last time with a break of 125, but ran out of position on a break of 62 in the decider.
The world No 1 still looked set to win when he later potted the final red to lead by 26 points, but missed a difficult black along the cushion instead of opting to leave Vafaei snookered on the yellow.
That decision came back to bite the seven-time world champion as he left the yellow over a corner pocket in escaping from a snooker and Vafaei held his nerve to clear the table and secure a 5-4 victory.
Vafaei had earlier missed a simple red on a break of 33 in the decider and said: "I'm still shocked how I missed that red to be honest with you. I went down [on the shot] so quick so my eyes couldn't see anywhere. That's unforgivable and all of sudden the game changed. I thought I was going to lose that.
"I'm very happy that in the end I get the victory. He's my hero - just playing against Ronnie O'sullivan is just a dream come true, never mind winning."
Defending champion Judd Trump, who won the tournament when it was last staged in 2019, also reached the last eight with a 5-3 win over David Lilley, while Barry Hawkins made breaks of 129, 67, 71 and 54 as he reeled off five frames in succession to beat Stephen Maguire 5-1.
Kyren Wilson made a break of 119 in the deciding frame to beat Ben Woollaston 5-4.