Shaun Murphy knocks out defending champion Hossein Vafaei, 14-year-old Vladislav Gradinari beats Ng On Yee

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.

First round

January 25

1pm

• Hossein Vafaei 9-33 Shaun Murphy
• Vladislav Gradinari 40-1 Ng On-yee
• Jamie O’Neill 55-21 Ryan Thomerson
• Liam Graham 21-43 Cao Yupeng
• Ian Martin v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
• Luke Simmonds v Sam Craigie
• Robbie McGuigan v Hammad Miah
• James Cahill v Jordan Brown
• Joe Perry v Luca Brecel
• Lukas Kleckers v Rod Lawler
• Joe O’Connor v Dylan Emery
• Barry Pinches v Michael Judge
• Anthony Hamilton v Ben Mertens
• Andy Hicks v Rory McLeod
• Jack Borwick v Ali Carter
• Mark Williams v Craig Steadman

7pm

• Jack Lisowski v Mark Allen
• Martin Gould v Jamie Clarke
• Alexander Ursenbacher v Aaron Hill
• Robbie Williams v Mink Nutcharut
• Mark Joyce v Victor Sarkis
• Robert Milkins v Andy Lee
• Sean O’Sullivan v Dean Young
• Andrew Pagett v Ashley Hugill
• Stephen Maguire v Ken Doherty
• Jamie Jones v Jenson Kendrick
• Ben Woollaston v Sanderson Lam
• Muhammad Asif v Gerard Greene
• Louis Heathcote v Oliver Lines
• Jimmy White v Adam Duffy
• Peng Yisong v Daniel Wells
• Barry Hawkins v Jackson Page

Snooker Shoot Our 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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