Category: Hossein Vafaei

Judd Trump made a statement of intent by racing to a 10-5 victory over Hossein Vafaei in the first round of the World Championship.

The Iranian made a good start to the second session by taking the opening frame, but Trump responded in superb fashion to book his place in the last 16.

Trump was not at his sizzling, free-scoring best but showed he has more than one string to his bow by suffocating his opponent.

Vafaei needed a fast start and got in with an excellent opening red, showing his cue power with a deep screw to get on the blue. With pink and black out of commission, the Iranian made 30 before having to run for cover.

Trump missed a pot but got lucky as a series of cannons saw a red drop into the bottom left. The cherry on the cake for Trump was he landed perfectly on the blue, but he did not take advantage of his good fortune as he missed a simple red – to audible gasps from the Crucible crowd – to hand the table back to his opponent.

It was not a simple table that Vafaei inherited, with reds on cushions, and he added 28 to his advantage before missing a red across the bottom rail. The lead was 46 with a possible 51 on the table, and Trump was unable to mount a comeback as Vafaei took the opening frame of the session to cut the gap to two.

Trump made 34 before running out of position in the 11th. He got back in with a brilliant pot and laid a fiendish snooker. Although Vafaei made the escape, he stuck a red over the left middle and Trump picked off the balls he required to restore his three-frame lead at 7-4.

Trump was not able to bend the cue ball to his will as can be the case when at his absolute best, as was proved when he failed to make contact with the pack when on a break of 12 in the 12th.

The tactical side of Trump’s game is much improved and he put Vafaei in trouble with reds clustered towards the bottom left. The error was drawn and Trump extended his lead to 50 points before running for the safety of baulk rather than push the boat out and take on a tough colour with the threat of a counter.

Rather than one knockout punch in the 12th, Trump took it thanks to a series of blows as he extended his advantage to four frames.

Trailing by 57 points in the 13th frame, and having had a light-hearted exchange with referee Rob Spencer over the position of a red, Vafaei had a chance to counter after Trump missed a makeable red. He picked off pots and looked set to hit back, but he missed the penultimate red when attempting a pot with his left hand rather than using the rest.

In a theme of the match, Trump punished the mistake to extend his lead to 9-4 and to the cusp of the second round.

Trump was a 10-4 winner when the two players met at the same stage two years ago, but Vafaei ensured there was no repeat as he fluked the final pink and knocked in the black to keep his hopes alive.

World No. 2 Trump appeared irked by some movement in the crowd when missing a pot in the 14th frame.

He did not look fully settled on Sunday – his highest break of the session was 44 – but that run secured him a good advantage in the 15th with reds on cushions.

Vafaei chanced his arm, but the pot did not drop and Trump closed out the match to reach the last 16 where he will face Tom Ford or Ricky Walden.

Judd Trump ruthlessly pounced on errors from Hossein Vafaei to secure a 6-3 lead after the first session of their clash in the opening round of the World Championship.

Vafaei arrived at the Crucible in confident mood and approached the clash with an attacking mindset. It was arguably too attacking, as some questionable shot choices were punished by Trump who did not miss a beat in Sheffield on Saturday afternoon.

The players will return on Sunday to play to a conclusion in the race to 10.

Nerves were on show in the early exchanges, with Vafaei missing a simple red on 13 and Trump breaking down on 31. Trump got in again and steadied the nerves with a run of 63 to get the opener on the board.

Vafaei made a hard-working break of 56 in the second, with the cue ball accumulating some mileage, but eventually broke down when missing a tough red to the green pocket.

The Iranian seems to prefer to play front-foot snooker, but his endeavour proved costly as Trump pounced on the missed red and cleared to the pink to double his lead.

Vafaei made 67 in the third but ran out of position when in search of one more red to leave Trump needing a snooker.

The third frame was Vafaei’s own version of Groundhog Day, as he went for an audacious pot to keep the break going, but the cross-double did not drop and Trump stepped in to pick his pocket with a brilliant clearance of 72 to move three frames to the good.

Fergal O’Brien in the Eurosport commentary box called Vafaei’s play “poor game management” and it was hard to disagree as Trump capitalised in ruthless fashion.

Vafaei was not prepared to take a backward step and pulled off a stunning cutback on a black to keep a break going in the fourth. It was possibly a case of the snooker gods looking positively on his attacking instincts as he later missed a red to the bottom left but it cannoned off the black and into the bottom right to secure his first frame.

After securing the fourth frame on the back of an outrageous fluke, the prospect of a repeat reared its head in the fifth as Vafaei missed a red to left middle but saw it hit the knuckle and cling to the rail before dropping into the yellow pocket.

The chance was not taken though as he played a poor positional shot to get on the black and missed the pot by a distance. Trump punished mistakes before the interval and did so again upon the resumption as a 56 clearance to the pink restored his three-frame lead.

There was nothing wrong with Vafaei’s cueing and he hammered that home with the first century of the match – a superb 138 – to take the sixth.

A lot of the talking points from the session were around Vafaei. He had a chance once again in the seventh to build on the 138 from the previous frame, but missed a simple red which Trump seized upon once again with a break of 77.

Trump took frames two, three, five and seven on the back of his opponent’s mistakes. The eighth was all of his own making as two solid contributions off good opening reds moved him four frames ahead.

Vafaei showed tremendous resolve to keep himself in the hunt by taking the final frame of the session with a 74, but a 6-3 lead overnight has Trump in the driving seat.