Hossein Vafaei wins 2022 Snooker Shoot Out

Hossein Vafaei has won the 2022 Snooker Shoot Out, picking up his first ranking title and becoming the first Iranian player to win a ranking tournament in the process.

Vafaei stunned four-time world champion Mark Williams 71-0 in the final to claim the title.

Defending champion Ryan Day was defeated in the first round by Jak Jones, thus continuing the run of no player ever winning the Shoot Out more than once.

Vafaei kicked off the tournament with a break of 123 against Peter Devlin, the highest of this year’s tournament, and then he vanquished Barry Pinches, Allan Taylor, former champion Michael Georgiou and Daniel Womersley to reach the semi-final.

There, he faced Liang Wenbo, and he faced a scare. Wenbo raced into a 48-point lead, before he miscued on a routine black – the foul handed ball-in-hand to Vafaei, who seized the chance to secure the victory.

And then, it was onto Williams, who defeated Robbie Williams to book his own place in the final, compiling an 80 break and potting the final black with one hand.

The battle was very one-sided, however, with Williams only making a single shot – the break. He left a long red, which Vafaei potted, and used as a springboard to compile his 71 and win the tournament.

After the match, Vafaei devoted the title to his recently-deceased grandmother: “That is for you, grandma. It’s Mother’s Day in Iran and I am very proud I did that. I could not be more happy.

“It’s a big achievement for a country like Iran. Nobody knew about snooker before. Now they know. I’ve been working hard and thank God that finally I win a tournament and make my people proud.”

Williams said: “I thought I’d played a pretty good break-off shot there and what a fantastic red that was. To make that break under pressure to win your first tournament, hats off to him.”

The Shoot Out was surrounded by its usual criticisms about its status as a ranking event, and these were compounded by Ronnie O’Sullivan’s comments that the tournament has little value to him as a player.