Hossein Vafaei

Bio

Iran’s first professional snooker player, Hossein Vafaei made history in January 2022 by becoming the first Iranian to win a world ranking tournament at the Shoot Out in Leicester.

Having made the tournament high break of 123 in the opening round, Vafaei would ultimately defeat three-time world champion Mark Williams in the title match to claim the £50,000 top prize. Victory saw him become the 70th player to win a world ranking event with Iran becoming the 14th country to produce a ranking event champion.

He made his debut at the televised stages of the World Championship in 2022, winning his first match at the Crucible Theatre a year later against Ding Junhui before losing out to defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last 16.

The Iranian cueist made his Masters debut in 2023, defeating Mark Selby to reach the quarter-finals, and had his best run to date in a triple crown event later that year at the UK Championship where he defeated Shaun Murphy, Matthew Selt and Zhang Anda in the televised stages before losing 6-2 to O’Sullivan in the semi-finals.

Vafaei compiled the first maximum break of his career at the 2022 European Masters qualifiers and reached a career high ranking of 15th in October 2023.

Early Career

A former world under-21 and world amateur champion, Vafaei joined the World Snooker Tour in 2012 but it was not until the 2015/16 season that he was able to compete on a regular basis following a successful visa application.

Career Honours

WST Ranking Event Titles (1)

• 2021/22: Shoot Out