Ronnie O'Sullivan demolished Hossein Vafaei 13-2 in their second-round match at the World Snooker Championship, winning with a session to spare. The seven-time world champion reeled off six consecutive breaks of 50 or more, including his 1,200th and 1,201st career centuries, as he swept all seven frames on Saturday afternoon.
O'Sullivan embraced his opponent after the match, despite Vafaei's pre-match comments and a controversial break-off shot in the second frame on Friday. Vafaei had accused O'Sullivan of disrespect over an incident in their 2021 German Masters qualifier, and his wild break-off was seen as retaliation. O'Sullivan said: 'It's not like I take comments personally... That little black book is locked up in my mind and just kind of helped me.'
Vafaei missed a blue in the opening frame, setting the tone as O'Sullivan extended his lead to 7-2. Further breaks of 68, 83, and 64 followed, with O'Sullivan reaching his historic century mark in the 14th frame and repeating the feat in the 15th to seal victory. It was his first win with a session to spare at the Crucible since 2014.
Vafaei remained unrepentant about his break-off, saying: 'Whatever he gave to me, I gave it back... I just did it to give him back what he gave to me.' He added: 'This year I lost to the greatest who ever played this game. He said to me: Let's be friends together again.'
O'Sullivan now faces Luca Brecel in the quarter-finals and warned rivals he can improve: 'I've got nothing to lose... The people who say I've got something to lose are the ones who have something to lose.' In other matches, Neil Robertson lost 13-7 to Jak Jones, who will face Mark Allen. Anthony McGill leads Jack Lisowski 7-1, while Mark Selby leads Gary Wilson 5-3.
