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JEDDAH: Ronnie O’Sullivan pulled off a sensational comeback victory against Chang Bingyu to reach the quarter-finals of the second annual �������� Snooker Masters in Jeddah.

The snooker legend trailed 5-2 on Wednesday night before storming back to beat surprise package Bingyu 6-5, and for a second successive tournament set up a last-eight clash with fellow Englishman Kyren Wilson, who defeated Si Jiahui 6-3.

“I have realized now I took this game for granted before, because when I was struggling I lost my confidence and lost my swagger, and that’s something you can’t fake,” said O’Sullivan, the world No. 5, after booking a place in what will be his 148th ranking quarter-final.

The fan-favorite described the Saudi Masters as his home tournament, now that he lives in Dubai and has an academy that bears his name in Riyadh.

Mark Williams also made it through to the last eight with a 6-1 victory against Shaun Murphy. He will now face Elliot Slessor, who progressed with a thrilling 6-5 defeat of Stuart Bingham.

Four-time world champion Mark Selby became only the fifth player to rack up 900 career centuries thanks to a 119 break against Neil Robertson, but ultimately lost the match 6-4. Ali Carter beat Oliver Lines 6-3 and will take on Robertson in the quarter-finals. Barry Hawkins and Chris Wakelin also progressed to complete the last-eight lineup.

The quarter-finals will be played on Thursday. The tournament, which takes place at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City, is organized by the Saudi Billiards and Snooker Federation, in partnership with Matchroom and cooperation with the World Snooker Tour, under the supervision of the Ministry of Sports.

PIRAEUS: A series of pro-Palestinian protests targeting an Israeli cruise ship around Greece have irritated a conservative government walking a diplomatic tightrope with Middle Eastern powers during the Gaza war.
At the crack of dawn on Thursday at the port of Piraeus outside Athens, dozens of riot police armed with truncheons, tear gas and shields sealed up a cruise terminal from hundreds of demonstrators.
Their ire was directed at the “Crown Iris,” a hulking Israeli tourist ship that has attracted protests at each of its stops in the country since last month.
Tourism is a pillar of the Greek economy, but pro-Palestinian activists say the visitors “whitewash” Israel’s devastating war in Gaza that was sparked by the unprecedented 2023 Hamas attack.
According to the All Workers Militant Front (PAME), a communist-affiliated union that called the rally, the Crown Iris was carrying Israeli soldiers.
“We cannot tolerate people who have contributed to the genocide of the Palestinian people moving among us,” protester Yorgos Michailidis told AFP in Piraeus.
“We want people everywhere to see that we don’t only care about tourism and the money they bring,” the 43-year-old teacher said.
For Katerina Patrikiou, a 48-year-old hospital worker, the visitors “are not tourists — they are the slaughterers of children and civilians in Gaza.”
Ties with Israel
Greece traditionally maintained a pro-Arab foreign policy, but governments of different political stripes have in recent years woven closer ties with Israel in defense, security and energy.
Athens has carefully tried to protect both relations during the war, accusing the left-wing opposition of undermining the strategic Israel alliance aimed at counterbalancing the influence of historic rival Turkiye in the eastern Mediterranean.
“The useful idiots for Turkiye have been in our ports, where their extreme actions seriously damage Greece’s image in Israel,” Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis wrote on X last month.
“We must protect this alliance as the apple of our eye and isolate these fools... Those who exhibit antisemitic behavior act against Greece’s interests.”
Before joining the ruling conservative party in 2012, Georgiadis was a prominent member of far-right party Laos, which had a history of anti-Semitic statements.
When first named health minister a year later, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had urged the government to reconsider, noting that Georgiadis had made “troubling remarks” about Jewish people and had promoted an anti-Semitic book.
In 2017, he publicly apologized for having “coexisted with and tolerated the opinions of people who showed disrespect to my Jewish compatriots.”
Several protests each rallying hundreds of people attempted to prevent the Crown Iris from docking at Mediterranean islands including Rhodes, Crete and Syros last month, with occasional scuffles between demonstrators and police.
According to The Times of Israel, the ship’s owners decided to skip Syros after 200 people protested as the vessel approached.
Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Noam Katz, condemned an “attempt to harm the strong relations between our peoples, and to intimidate Israeli tourists” in Syros.
Greece’s Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis has said that anyone who “prevents a citizen of a third country from visiting our country will be prosecuted” for racism.
“Nobody is racist”
PAME accused the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of using antisemitism allegations “to whitewash the crimes of the murderer state, suppress any reaction, and any expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
“Nobody is racist, nobody has a problem with Jewish identity... Our problem is the people who support genocide,” Michailidis said at Thursday’s rally.
The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Gaza’s Hamas rulers resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Palestinian militants also took 251 hostages that day, with 49 still held in Gaza, including 27 who the Israeli army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
An Israeli aid blockade has exacerbated already dire humanitarian conditions in the devastated strip and plunged its more than two million inhabitants into the risk of famine.