Hossein Vafaei is set to play his most important match of the season on Friday when he meets Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals of the World Open in Yushan. Buoyed by his glorious 5-4 win over world No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan on the final black, Vafaei has arguably more riding on his meeting with Ding knowing a semi-final place will secure a coveted Tour Championship at the expense of John Higgins.
Hossein Vafaei remains on course to oust John Higgins from the elite Tour Championship following his 5-4 victory over world No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last 16 of the World Open in Yushan.
Iran’s leading player edged O’Sullivan on the final black on Thursday morning to secure a quarter-final meeting with Chinese icon Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Perhaps more importantly, Vafaei has also kept alive his prospects of qualifying for the 12-man Tour Championship in Manchester (1-7 April) and earning a top-16 place at the World Championship in Sheffield (20 April-6 May).
“He just said ‘go and win it now, just go and win it, you can win it’. And then I said ‘I will try my best’,” said Vafaei after revealing O’Sullivan’s kind words after slotting a dramatic winning final black.
Higgins continues to hold the final place at the Tour Championship – involving the top 12 players on the sport’s one-year list – but Vafaei moved within 7,000 points of the Scotsman in 13th place with his second win over O’Sullivan in six meetings.
The former Shoot Out champion knows a win over Ding will guarantee him at least £32,500 for reaching the semis in Yushan and overtake Higgins by 4,000 in the race to qualify for the Tour Championship, the penultimate event before the traditional season-ending World Championship at the Crucible.
O’Sullivan, Ding, Judd Trump, Zhang Anda, Mark Allen, Gary Wilson, Barry Hawkins, Mark Williams, Tom Ford and Ali Carter have already qualified for the event with Mark Selby joining fellow four-time Crucible winner Higgins in hoping results go their way over the next three days.
Selby lost 5-2 to young Welshman Jackson Page in the last 16 on Thursday, who followed up his 5-3 win over Higgins in the last 64 with three centuries against Selby.
Page, Kyren Wilson, Elliot Slessor and Neil Robertson all need to land the £170,000 first prize on Sunday night to qualify for the Tour Championship
Meanwhile, Vafaei could also boost his hopes of securing a top-16 seeding for the Crucible by reaching the final in Yushan on Sunday and claiming at least £73,000 for his efforts.
The world No. 19 is 39,000 points adrift of Robert Milkins in 16th place, but would move above Milkins and Hawkins into 14th spot by reaching the final ahead of the trip to Manchester Central for the Tour Championship.
Elsewhere, 2010 world champion Neil Robertson hit three centuries in a 5-1 win over Chris Wakelin in the last 16, but is provisionally ranked 25th in the world and knows he needs the World Open title on Sunday otherwise he faces being forced to qualify for the Crucible next month.
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