Ronnie O’Sullivan booked his place in the second round of the World Snooker Championship with a tool pulled from the most unlikely of places: a cue he retrieved from under his bed in Ireland. The world number twelve used the rediscovered stick to complete a 10-2 demolition of China’s He Guoqiang at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, needing just 35 minutes of their final session to secure victory.
O’Sullivan revealed the switch after wrapping up the match with back-to-back century breaks of 113 and 100. “My cue was hopeless yesterday,” he said. “It was stuck under my bed in Ireland, basically, for most of the year until I came here.” He added that the old cue finally allowed him to play the shots he wanted as he builds momentum in his quest for a historic eighth world title, which would surpass Stephen Hendry’s modern-era record of seven.
The veteran’s view from the ‘creche’
His win sets up a classic last-16 encounter with fellow ‘Class of 92’ member John Higgins, a four-time champion. Yet, despite his dominant performance, the 48-year-old expressed doubts about his capacity to lift the trophy again, citing a lack of regular competition against the sport’s elite. “It’s hard, because I haven’t played enough top players regularly to know,” O’Sullivan admitted. “I’m still a bit rusty… Nothing’s impossible.”
His perspective was coloured by the fresh faces around him. In a post-match interview, he jokingly labelled the tournament practice room a “creche” but singled out young British talents Stan Moody and Liam Pullen—both first-time qualifiers who have since been eliminated—as future stars. He praised Moody’s technique and predicted he would be a world champion. This marks a shift from comments he made in 2020, when he was fiercely critical of the younger generation’s standard, suggesting many would struggle as “half-decent amateurs.”
O’Sullivan now claims a more philosophical approach. “I’m quite happy being in this situation,” he said. “If you told me I’d be here… enjoying the game, I’d say: ‘Yeah, great’.” He added that he now prefers to play in “little stints” rather than being a “slave to the game.”
A snooker match overshadowed by conflict
While O’Sullivan navigated his path, elsewhere in the tournament the world beyond the green baize intruded starkly. Iran’s trailblazing professional Hossein Vafaei, who took a 6-3 lead over 2023 semi-finalist Si Jiahui, admitted his campaign was being played under a heavy personal cloud.
The 31-year-old from Abadan, the first Iranian to win a ranking title and to compete at the Crucible, said the ongoing conflict involving his homeland has made focus extraordinarily difficult. The war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February and has since spread to Gulf countries and Lebanon, has created what he described as a “rollercoaster of emotions.”
“You get a bad text in the day and you can’t focus on your job. How can I focus?” Vafaei told the BBC. “No one knows how tough it is.” He stated that, fortunately, his family has remained safe from harm, but the psychological toll is immense. “It’s been very hard, very, very hard… I’m fighting as well for my country, for my family and I’m trying my best.”
Vafaei, whose career-high ranking was 15th in 2023, expressed hope that his performance could offer a distraction and a point of pride for his compatriots watching back home. “If I do well… it will be a proud moment,” he said. His situation highlights the wider disruption the conflict has caused in international sports, which has included event cancellations and travel chaos for athletes globally.
In other action, four-time champion Mark Selby eased to a 10-2 victory over Jak Jones. Jones, who reached the quarter-finals on his Crucible debut in 2023, would later go on to defy expectations by reaching the 2024 World Championship final, where he lost 18-14 to Kyren Wilson.
