Trump punishes Vafaei errors to open up commanding lead

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.