22-year old sensation, Wu Yize of China made the Snooker World Championship semi-finals against Hossein Vafaei who called him a Playstation at the Crucible on Wednesday night.
The title of official dark horse at the
Snooker World Championship 2026 was contested in the quarter-final between
Wu Yize and
Hossein Vafaei. Neither man was anywhere near the conversation as a favourite at the Crucible when the tournament started, but one of them was going to make the top 4.
Vafaei's victories in Sheffield have been particularly surprising, as his ranking of #32 in the world reflects. However, seeded players like
Si Jiahui and
Judd Trump still had to concede Iran's number 1 as better on the day.
Wu Yize was slightly luckier, having been the seeded in the first round against fellow countryman
Lei Peifan. Dispatching him 10-2 looked easy enough for the young sensation, but taking down
Mark Selby 13-11 in the 2nd round was when people really started to take notice.
The match itself began evenly, with frames being traded until 5-5. Sadly it was bad luck and a mistake that switched to momentum to one side - Vafaei got unlucky cannoning into the reds from the black, afterwards failing a safety.
Suddenly the game was 10-6 in Wu's favour after two sessions going into Wednesday night's final session. China's young flash only needed 5 frames to take the 3 he needed to close out the match and confirm a spot in the semi-finals.
The last frame was a real coup de grace. Vafaei had everything completely in control, leading 70-12 with 59 on the table. Sadly for Iran's pride his break was cut short, and he was forced to take a safety. Wu won the ensuing safety battle, getting a snooker.
Vafaei's escape came up short, and disaster struck as he left Wu on a red in the process. The 22-year old cleared with an extremely stylish and difficult break of 59 to take the frame by just one point 71-70. The man who hadn't even won at the Crucible before now goes on to face
Mark Allen in the semi-finals.
- I feel like anything is possible for me right now. In the last session I finally found my rhythm. Now I'll get to experience the World Championship in single table games, I'm really happy, Wu told BBC.
- With Wu it's like you're playing against a Playstation, he just made shots from anywhere and from nothing. I was just thinking to myself where can I put the white where he won't score from, Vafaei summed up after the match.
You can watch Wu's brilliant comeback in the closing frame from the video below.
Source:
BBC 
