Shaun Murphy knocks out defending champion Hossein Vafaei, 14-year-old Vladislav Gradinari beats Ng On Yee
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ByEurosport
Updated 25/01/2023 at 23:21 GMT
Mark Selby, Reanne Evans and Mark Williams are among the headline acts at the Shoot Out as the action-packed event returns. However before they took to the baize, the first two matches threw up notable storylines, Shaun Murphy beating defending champion Hossein Vafaei while 14-year-old Vladislav Gradinari secured victory against Ng On Yee. Stream the Shoot Out live on discovery+ and Eurosport.
'A howler from Hossein!' - Reigning champ Vafaei loses to Murphy after error
Shaun Murphy beat defending champion Hossein Vafaei 33-9 in the opening match of this year’s Shoot Out while 14-year-old Vladislav Gradinari beat Ng On Yee 40-1.
The Murphy-Vafaei match was a slow burner, with, after a raft of misses, the defending champion holding an 8-1 advantage over 2005 world champion Murphy with three of the 10-minute encounter to go.
Vafaei added another red as Murphy continued to miss. However, looking to thrash a red into the bottom right pocket, the Iranian potted the yellow, and with the table not easy to build a break on with a minute left, Murphy did enough to knock the defending champion out.
Match two pitted the women’s world champion On Yee against 14-year-old Gradinari.
And it was a relaxed-looking Gradinari who got on the scoreboard first, opening up a nine-point lead before playing safe. On Yee spotted an opening but could not capitalise on a terrific opener and Gradinari took advantage, opening up an 18-1 advantage with just three minutes to go.
On Yee was unable to lay a glove on the 14-year-old as the clock ticked towards its conclusion. Gradinari went on to seal the frame 40-1 and progressed to the next round, and become the youngest player to win a televised match at a ranking event.
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'We've got a player here!' - 14-year-old Vladislav Gradinari impresses with Shoot Out win
Match 7 saw another shock, with 18-year-old Robbie McGuigan beating Hammad Miah 52-3.
McGuigan hit the headlines back in 2018 when he became the youngest player to make a 147 - the effort at the 147 Snooker Club in Antrim was caught on the club's CCTV cameras.
Elsewhere on Wednesday afternoon, Ali Carter progressed by beating Jack Borwick, while 18-year-old Belgian Ben Mertens knocked out Anthony Hamilton.
And in the final match of the afternoon session, Mark Williams continued his fine form of late by compiling a superlative 98 break - the highest of the event so far - to see off Craig Steadman.
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Williams knocks off 98 for 'best break of the day' at Snooker Shoot Out
"The shot clock doesn't really affect me that much," Williams admitted to Eurosport afterwards, when reflecting on his superb start to the tournament.
"I can play almost a normal game with the 15 seconds, which is an advantage really."
There was a standout match early in the evening session as Jack Lisowski took on Mark Allen.
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'What a finish!' - Lisowski produces dramatic finish to beat Allen at Shoot Out
Lisowski was down on the score right until the last, but raced round the table with just seconds to spare to pot the black he needed to progress.
There were two shocks late on, with Barry Hawkins dumped out by Jackson Page and Jimmy White sent packing by Adam Duffy.
Snooker Shoot Out rules
There are some fun Snooker Shoot Out rules to get your head around as well, such as:
- To decide who breaks, there is a “lag” which is when the two players hit the cue ball up and down the table to see who gets closest to the cushion. Whoever is closest gets the choice to break or not
- A ball must hit a cushion, or be potted
- Any foul means your opponent gets a ball in hand, as well as a five-point penalty, so they can grab the cue ball and put it anywhere with their next shot
- There is a shot clock of 15 seconds for the first five minutes which reduces to 10 seconds for the final five minutes
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Stream the 2023 Shoot Out live and on demand on discovery+
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