Vafaei eyes Jackpot in his mission for pride of Persia
HOSSEINVAFAEI wants to make snooker bigger than Iran’s national sport of wrestling.
Potting’s Persian prince will grapple with speedster Jack Lisowski today in York for a place in the UK Championship quarter-finals.
World No.63Vafaei will do well to hold on to Lisowski, who is renowned for being one of the fastest players on tour.
However, after seeing his career badly hit by visa problems,Vafaei is looking to count ‘Jackpot’ out in the first major of the season.
Iran has won a total of 47 medals for wrestling at the Olympics over the years, including 11 golds.
And Vafaei, who beat world champion Mark Selby in the second round, said: “At the moment the biggest sport is wrestling, that is very famous for Iranians.
“We get a lot of gold medals at the Olympics, so that is the No.1 individual sport. But snooker is getting up there towards the top.
“It would be a big thing if snooker overtook wrestling but there is a huge amount of interest in the game back home. They follow my matches, put me under pressure and tell me how to play.
“It will be a great match against Jack, he is one of the most talented on the circuit and I respect him. “He is a dangerous player, but so am I. I’m here to win the tournament for my people and make my country proud.”
World No.15 Lisowski is still looking for a first ranking title after six final defeats and knows his best asset is rapidly reeling off a string of frames.
He said: “Winning frames very quickly is one of my strengths – when they start going in for all the fast players we don’t look for problems.” Meanwhile, Ronnie O’Sullivan is already into the quarter-finals. The Rocket moved through the gears against Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham to seal a 6-3 victory.