Hossein Vafaei, the first Iranian professional in the history of snooker, has had to battle for his right to play the sport he loves.
But the 23-year-old from Abadan, a city on the border with Iraq and close to Basra, has made his mark in South Wales this week.
Former World amateur champion Vafaei is through to the ManBetX Welsh Open Championship semi-finals and plays Australian Neil Robertson on Saturday evening (7pm).
The ranking tournament is being played at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff and the winner of Vafaei v Robertson will play Stuart Bingham in Sunday’s final.
Essex-born Bingham defeated Joe O’Connor 6-2 in the first semi-final.
It’s been a long, hard fight for Vafaei, who was badly affected when diplomatic ties between the UK and Iran were cut following the attack on the British Embassy in Tehran in 2011.
Clinical.
From 1-0 down to Scott Donaldson, @hvafaei147 fires in breaks of 76, 54, 75, 62 & 92 to reach the last 4 of the @manbetxofficial Welsh Open!
He'll meet Neil Robertson or Kurt Maflin in his second ranking semi final #WelshOpen pic.twitter.com/QxTP1LjA2f
— WST (@WeAreWST) February 15, 2019
Vafaei started to get a fair crack of the whip in 2015-16 when diplomatic tension between the UK and Iran eased, but by then he had lost four years of his early career at a crucial time in his development.
Now, though, World number 37 Vafaei is starting to live up to the promise he has shown almost since he first started playing snooker as a young boy.
The sport was taken to Iran in the days of the Shah, mainly by British BP workers.
But snooker clubs then fell into a state of total disrepair after the sport was banned for more than two decades by the Islamist government for gambling associations. That was overturned in 2000.
Vafaei grew up in oil-rich Abadan, a city badly bombed during the 1980s war with Iraq, and his first taste of snooker was on a dusty table with a ripped cloth using a warped cue on a street still strewn with the debris of armed conflict.
“There was a club opposite my house and I was curious to see what it looked like inside,” he said. “I asked my father about it. He held my hand and took me inside.
“From then on I fell in love snooker. I used to go to the club after school and even finished my homework there.”
He was seven years old and that first experience started him on a long, difficult journey. The Iran snooker federation initially wanted him to stay as an amateur for national glory, but he turned to the professional ranks in 2012 after being crowned World Amateur Champion.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has played a role in Vafaei’s development and he said: “Ronnie and China’s Liang Wenbo have been my best friends on tour.
“Ronnie helped me a lot and gave me plenty of advice.
“Snooker is popular in Iran. We have more than 1,400 snooker clubs. Success for me would make the profile of the sport even bigger.”
Former World champion Robertson plays Vafaei in the Welsh Open semis and the Australian said: “Hossein should have been on the tour years before he was. It was crazy for him.”
Vafaei, nicknamed Prince of Persia on the World tour, is delighted by his progress and says: “I am proud to be the first Iranian pro and I hope I can do well to make my people happy.
“My Federation has supported me enormously and I hope I can do well to make them proud.
“Snooker is a highly popular sport in Iran, second after football.
“Stars like Ronnie O’Sullivan are as famous in Iran as they are in the UK. We watch the World Snooker tournaments on satellite channels.”
This evening Vafaei faces a major test when he plays Robertson with the winner taking their place in the Welsh Open final.
The 37-year-old Aussie from Melbourne won 5-4 against Norway’s Kurt Maflin, knocking in breaks of 69, 136, and 67.
Robertson, Welsh Open champion 12 years ago when the sport’s third longest running ranking event was staged in Newport, provides Vafaei with a huge semi-final test at the Motorpoint.