Mark Williams v Hossein Vafaei live stream | British Open 2023 Semi-Final preview
Williams and Vafaei face off in Cheltenham (Imaginechina Limited / Alamy Stock Photo)
Mark Williams and Hossein Vafaei go head to head in the first British Open semi-final at The Centaur in Cheltenham on Saturday.
The two players are meeting at this stage of a ranking event for the third time, with Williams prevailing in both of their previous such encounters at the 2017 China Open and 2019 China Championship.
Although, Vafaei did win their most recent showdown in last year’s Shoot Out final to land his maiden ranking title.
Williams is just two wins from claiming his second British Open title in the space of three years, having already taken out the likes of Stephen Maguire, Gary Wilson and Ding Junhui this week.
The Welshman was also in fine scoring form as he swept Fan Zhengyi aside 5-1 in the quarter-finals, hitting two centuries along the way.
He will look to continue in that vein as he looks to reach the 40th ranking final of his career.
By contrast, Vafaei is looking to reach just his second in what is his sixth semi-final appearance.
The Iranian has not dropped more than two frames in any of his matches this week, defeating the likes of Oliver Brown, Graeme Dott and first-year pro He Guoqiang.
It promises to be a closely fought battle between the players ranked 10th and 17th in the world, with a showdown against either Mark Selby or Xiao Guodong awaiting the winner.
Play gets under way at 1pm BST on Saturday and will be contested over the best of 11 frames at The Centaur in Cheltenham.
How to watch Williams v Vafaei live stream
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