World Open: Hossein Vafaei gets one over Ronnie O'Sullivan with 5-4 win in China

Vafaei caused a stir at the 2023 World Championship when criticising O'Sullivan before suffering a 13-2 thrashing, and was again outplayed by The Rocket at the UK Championship in December.

But here in China he was never behind and while O'Sullivan kept scraping, a 125 break taking the match the distance, Vafaei potted the final black for a dramatic victory.

The Iranian had trailed after he missed a simple red and O'Sullivan responded with a 63 break but came back to the table needing to clear the colours to win, which he did when coaxing the black along the rail before the pair shared a warm embrace.

Victory kept alive Vafaei's hopes of reaching the Tour Championship and in turn to reach the Crucible without having to come through qualifying.

For now he's into Friday's quarter-finals, where he'll face Ding Junhui following his impressive 5-3 success against Shaun Murphy.

"I'm still shocked how I missed that red, to be honest with you - that's unforgivable," confessed Vafaei. "I'm very happy, he's my hero. Just playing against Ronnie O'Sullivan is a dream come true."

Earlier there were wins for Barry Hawkins and Judd Trump, the latter beating David Lilley 5-3, while Kyren Wilson came through a deciding frame in his match with Ben Woollaston.

Mark Selby meanwhile lost 5-2 to Jackson Page, who added another scalp to his collection having already accounted for John Higgins.