What the strange Mark Williams vs Hossein Vafaei Grand Prix clash was all about

Mark Williams and Hossein Vafaei meet in the second round of the World Snooker Championship this week, their first clash since a strange incident last year.

The pair have not met since January 2024 when Williams beat Vafaei 4-1 in the last 16 of the World Grand Prix in Leicester.

The Welshman was in fine form, knocking in breaks of 108, 76 and 75, but there was heat between the two at the end of the contest as the Iranian shook hands with the referee but not with his opponent and stormed out of the arena.

The crowd booed and Williams looked baffled at the snub as he followed Vafaei away from the table.

It turned out that the Iranian was annoyed with the Welsh Potting Machine because when Williams missed a pink at the end of the match, when Vafaei needed snookers, he slapped his own leg in annoyance.

The three-time world champion said he did so because he thought Vafaei would return to play for snookers, but instead the Prince of Persia saw it as disrespectful.

Williams told ITV at the time: ‘I just pulled him up about it there and said, “What’s your problem?” He said it was because I slapped my leg at the end when I won.

‘I slapped my leg at the end because I shouldn’t have gone for the pink, I should have played safe and I thought he would have come back to the table and carried on for snookers.

‘That’s why I was a bit fuming, I shouldn’t have gone for the pink and I knew it and he just stormed up. He said that’s the reason, if that’s the reason, pfft, I don’t care anyway.’

Williams was not impressed, adding on social media: ‘Unreal, didn’t know what was happening. I was a good admirer of his game as well, all my family liked him, not sure they do after that now.’

Vafaei was asked about the incident a few months later when he qualified for the 2024 World Championship and sounded regretful, but felt that Williams was being disrespectful at the time.

‘Mark Williams! Yeah he’s very funny and I love him, I respect him,’ he said. ‘I have to say sorry to him. He’s older than me, I shouldn’t do that.

‘Everyone gets angry, you know. I love him. He’s brilliant. I was thinking when he slapped his leg, every time he beat me he slapped his leg, like “this is another slap,” I was thinking that way. But I don’t want to disrespect him. It’s hard not love Mark Williams, he’s brilliant player.’

After Vafaei beat Barry Hawkins to set up his clash with Williams at the Crucible, which starts on Friday, he was asked if he has spoken to the three-time world champion since their thigh-slapping beef.

‘No not really, I didn’t speak much with other players,’ he said. ‘But past is past, we both done something. Why should we bring the past again? Something is gone, it’s gone.

‘If he remembered, I have to learn the respect from him. I don’t want to talk about it too much. Mark is Mark, I have to accept Mark Williams like this. He’s a legend of our sport. If I don’t respect him…I am younger, that was my mistake. I have to respect him. Even if he slaps me, because he is older than me. I have to accept it.

‘I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want you to bring something old up again and [put it] all over the news.

‘I think our sport don’t need negative things, our sport needs something special, nice words, so other players learn how to respect each other like tennis players.’

Williams and Vafaei play over three sessions, starting on Friday morning for a place in the Crucible quarter-finals.