Gloucestershire’s Jack Lisowski produced a sublime display in the Masters to beat Iran’s Hossein Vafaei 6-4 and set up a semi-final with two-time champion Mark Williams.
Alexandra Palace had not previously been a happy hunting ground for Lisowski, who won just four frames in his previous three appearances, including meek 6-1 defeats to both Ding Junhui and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
But the 31-year-old Churchdown native carried some excellent form into the tournament this year, and managed to break his Masters duck on Monday evening with an imposing 6-2 victory over two-time champion John Higgins.
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His opponent, Vafaei, had also impressed leading up to the match, producing probably the shock of the tournament so far when he knocked out former champion Mark Selby 6-2 in the first round.
Vafaei is the first ever Iranian to play in the Masters and was only granted entry into the tournament at the 11th hour after China’s Zhao Xintong was banned pending a match-fixing investigation.
The two men are close friends in real life, but it was obvious from the opening frame that this was all business for Lisowski, who immediately seized the initiative with excellent breaks of 96 and 76 to race into a 2-0 lead without his opponent even potting a ball.
But Vafaei wasn’t playing around either, and he immediately capitalized on a wayward shot from Lisowski in the third frame, producing a composed 68 to pull a game back.
The Iranian then put together a masterful break of 143 in the fourth to level the match, and tie Mark Williams’ high break of the tournament so far.
A mistake from Lisowski in the fifth handed Vafaei the chance to take the lead in the match for the first time, which he reluctantly accepted after a series of scrappy exchanges.
But Lisowski bounced back almost immediately, taking advantage of a poor safety shot from Vafaei to draw the match level again after a composed 67.
After 6 frames of outstanding snooker from both men, mistakes were starting to creep into the game.
Vafaei had control in the seventh following an incredible fluke, but poor cue-ball control caused him to miss a difficult red and allowed Lisowski to steal the frame out from under him.
Lisowski responded in the eighth with an error of his own, poorly positioning himself on the brown and allowing Vafaei to mop up.
The ninth frame was a nervy affair, but Lisowski looked like he had made the breakthrough after a disjointed 47, but poor shot selection and an excellent safety exchange from Vafaei left him snookered.
Vafaei worked his way back into the frame but eventually made a costly mistake, missing a relatively simple blue to gift Lisowski the frame and the lead in the match.
After a few untidy frames, Lisowski settled down with a controlled 74 to get himself over the line and book his place in the semi-finals.
This was another huge step in the Gloucestershire cueman’s quest for his first major trophy, and was achieved under the watchful eye of coach Peter Ebdon, who has been touted as a major factor in Lisowski’s current form.
It also sets up an enthralling match against two-time champion Mark Williams, who vanquished Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-5 to in a thrilling encounted to book his place in the semi final.
The semi-finals will take place on Saturday 14 January starting at 1pm.
