He reached a dream final at the British Open

However, he fell into it, and won there by playing snooker well. His performance was more convincing this week, especially in the second half of his matches. They have previously suffered only one defeat against Iran, in the 2022 penalty shootout final. They defeated them in the semi-finals of two Chinese competitions.

So Vafai had reason to respond, because he had the opportunity to reach the final in four serious tournaments, and Williams stood in his way in two of them. The three-time world champion started better this time too, with the first two frames his first. Then came the Iranian, who equalized with two fifties. After the break, Williams won twice again, and the sixth frame lasted more than 40 minutes.

This frame suited Vafai better, but he messed it up a few times. However, he responded well to the deficit in both frames, making up for it with a 135-break lead. This was the 100th century of his official career. At the start of the next frame, they both hit an incredible number of easy shots. Williams came out of that back-and-forth well and took the frame with a break of 62. Vafai probably didn’t make the most of it, as he had chances in the next frame as well, but couldn’t capitalize on them either. Williams finished the match with a break of 71, winning 6-3.

With this, he can prepare for the 40th final of his career, which will be his second of the season. The former lost in the league championship to Shaun Murphy. The last time Williams won a tournament was two years ago, at the British Open. It is possible that Vafai really regrets that it ended this way, because Williams could have been beaten that day.

In the evening, Mark Selby and Xiao Guodong battled for the other final qualifying spot. At first glance, the four-time world champion looked like the favorite, but he only led head-to-head 5-3, so there was an upset in the group. Especially if we take into account how well Selby played in his last two matches: he won crucial frame battles against David Gilbert and Jack Lisowski. On the other hand, Xiao achieved the highest break of the competition of 140 in the quarterfinals.

In the first two frames, the Chinese scored only one point, while Selby led with 64 and 94 breaks. The third frame could have been the turning point if Xiao had not missed the yellow light at the end. But he fouled, so he couldn’t steal the frame, and the four-time world champion was already ahead 3-0. In continuation, with a break of one hundred, it was already 4-0, so they went to the break. Selby’s shooting was 96% after the first four frames.

He did not slow down after the rest. With a break of 61, he was already trailing to 5-0, and in the sixth frame, Xiao had another chance, but in vain, he could not even improve, and Selby reached the final with a score of 6-0.

Selby has shown great form in the past six months, reaching at least the semi-finals for the sixth time in a row. In March, he won the WST Classic, then the semi-finals in the Tour Championship, then the finals in the World Championship, in the new season the semi-finals in the European Masters and Shanghai Masters, and now here is the final, which of course can lead to victory. Especially considering he has lost only two of his last 16 finals.

Williams and Selby have played 25 games against each other so far, and the Englishman leads 14-11. They met four times in the final, Williams won the 2011 German Masters 9-7, but in the same year at the Shanghai Masters, Selby actually won 10-9. In 2013, Williams won 4-3 in the Junior Scorer final, then the 2017 China Open went to Selby 10-7. The Englishman won all of their last four matches, the last time they met two and a half years ago, in the quarter-finals of the 2021 World Cup, when they easily won 13-3. Ten frames must be won in the British Open final.