Ronnie O’Sullivan dominates first session of grudge match as Hossein Vafaei falls flat at World Snooker Championship

Questions were asked as to how Ronnie O’Sullivan would react to being so openly criticised by Hossein Vafaei; he answered them in stunning fashion with a dominant display in the opening session of their second-round match at the World Championship.

He then had to deal with the fallout from Vafaei’s interview.

“He is such a nice person when he is asleep,” being the highlight of Vafaei’s attack on O’Sullivan during an interview with Eurosport’s Rachel Casey.

O’Sullivan’s frame of mind has been often talked about, Steve Peters could probably write a few books on the subject. There were concerns as to how he would react to being so openly criticised; whether it would overwhelm him. Not a bit of it.

Following the introduction of the players there was a perfunctory fistbump. From that moment on, O’Sullivan was all business and showed his class – with only one blip coming in the final frame of the session.

There’s a cast-iron argument to be made for O’Sullivan being the greatest to wield a cue. What is without debate is how good the seven-time world champion is as a front-runner.

Think Tiger Woods in the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach, think Frankel in the 2000 Guineas in 2011, think Rafael Nadal on the red dirt of Paris. Blink and you missed them.

It was not quite rocket powered, but a day after SpaceX’s four-minute “rapid, unscheduled disassembly before stage separation” that was probably a good thing.

But it was dominant and leaves him in command at 6-2 in the race to 13.

Vafaei potted the first ball of the match, but got a kick on the black that followed and then missed a red by a distance. His error was punished, as O’Sullivan opened his account with a 78.

O’Sullivan got in first in the third, but was unfortunate to run out of position and Vafaei showed the quality he possesses with a break of 64. A rash double on the final red showed his mind was still a little scrambled, but O’Sullivan’s counter broke down on the pink and the Iranian knocked it in to get on the board.

Vafaei took on a pot that was never on at the start of the fourth, hit the wrong red and O’Sullivan crafted a 69. It did not kill off the frame, but he had control of the table and closed it out a short while later to take a 3-1 lead into the interval.

The frame upon the resumption was the first scrappy one of the contest. It had a big feel to it, with O’Sullivan knowing taking it would put open water between the two, while Vafaei knew it would keep the champion in sight.

O’Sullivan did not look as focused as before the interval, but he worked an advantage and it proved pivotal as the frame turned scrappy with three reds on the table. Vafaei could find no way of getting the reds in open play, and O’Sullivan took his chance when it arrived to open up a three-frame lead.

The sixth saw a lengthy safety battle and Vafaei looked well placed when leaving O’Sullivan trapped on the baulk cushion. There was no obvious safety escape, which prompted him to take on a difficult long red.

As with a host of pots earlier in the match, it did not touch the sides and set O’Sullivan on his way to another piece of snooker history, as the 102 was his 200th century at the Crucible.

Good front-runners know the importance of keeping a foot on the gas, and the look of anger on O’Sullivan’s fans when he broke down on a break of 59 in the seventh showed how focused he was.

Vafaei knocked in some impressive pots in a counter of 42, but he missed the final yellow and O’Sullivan picked off the colours to extend his lead to five frames.

After a frustrating and disappointing afternoon, Vafaei gave himself something to cling to when countering with a break of 58, after O’Sullivan missed a pink when well set, to take the closing frame of the session to cut the gap to four frames – but he still faces a mountain to climb.

There was another dominant display on the adjoining table, as Mark Allen blitzed Stuart Bingham to work a 12-4 lead in the race to 12.

Bingham knocked in a century in the final frame of the afternoon to ensure the match would go into a third session.

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