Hossein Vafaei strongly criticized the Crucible after being eliminated from the Snooker World Championship with a 10-5 loss to former champion Judd Trump conditions of.
The Iranian described the Sheffield venue as “stinky”, likened its training facilities to “like playing in a garage” and questioned the treatment of players over the course of the marathon 17 days of competition.
“Everything is terrible – if you asked me if I wanted to come back here, I would tell you no way,” said Wafai, after a reckless breakaway shot in a loss to Ronnie O’s , is no stranger to Crucible controversy. “Forget about history, as a player you want to go to a really nice place. You walk around the crucible and it smells bad. You go to other countries and everything sparkles. But here it’s completely different.
“The practice room – do you see anything special? It feels like I’m practicing in a garage.
The Crucible has hosted the event since 1977 and speculation over the Crucible’s future has intensified since world number one O’Sullivan suggested it be moved to Saudi Arabia or China when the current deal expires in 2027 .
Wafai, who is making his debut in 2022 and is clearly not a fan, continued: “Look at the venues in China, how great they treat the players, the red carpet and the opening ceremony. The players are treated like stars. But no one here cares about the players , no one cares who you are before or after the game.
“If they don’t want to lose the Crucible, invest some money in making it shinier, prettier, more luxurious for people. If they make it cleaner and prettier, people will like it.
The World Snooker Tour responded in a statement: “The Crucible is a historic venue and given the size of the backstage area, there are some restrictions. We work with the Crucible to make players as welcoming as possible.
Trump eased into a 6-3 victory overnight against an opponent who looked frustrated after failing to capitalize on a series of chances to reach the halfway point, with his opponent having a better chance against the 2019 champion.
Trump wasn’t even asked to summon a half-century in a low-key second game, and he was more than happy to breeze through a potentially tricky task and finish in the last 16 against either Tom Ford or Ricky Varden Locked his position.
“I got the job done in the first meeting,” Trump said. “I knew that being down 6-3 after that game would demoralize him a little bit, so the goal today was to get a few games in as early as possible to make him lose confidence.
“I feel more confident going into this tournament than I have in the last three or four years. It’s nice to know I’m in the second round and I have a few days off so I can sit back and watch other people sweat.
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It was a different story for four-time champion Mark Selby, who was on the verge of a fall at the first hurdle after losing 7-2 to debutant Joe O’Connor in his first match.
Selby, who has raised questions about his future in the sport after losing to Gary Wilson in the Tour Championship earlier this month, finished with his second-best result against his Leicester rivals. City’s opponents have won five games in a row to put themselves in the lead before play resumes on Monday.
Eleventh seed Zhang Anda followed defending champion Luca Brecel out of the tournament and was defeated by last year’s quarterfinalist Jak Jones 10-4.
Jones crossed the line with a top-scoring 60 on Saturday to lead 5-2 after a brief start, while Zhang’s 95 in the 13th over proved to be too little, too late .
Shaun Murphy led China’s Lu Haotian 6-3 in the fifth game, although a horrific leak in the fifth game allowed his opponent to come back from 1-3 down to level 3-3.
