Snooker players of any standing will tell you pots into blind pockets are the toughest shots in the game, and Yan Bingtao will concur with that after his miss against Mark Williams.

With their World Championship quarter-final evenly poised at 11-11, Williams made a mess of a safety and left Yan a cut back into the yellow pocket.

Neal Foulds on Eurosport commentary said it was a thin one, but makeable and a shot he had to take on.

Yan, as he tends to do, assessed the situation before getting down to play the shot.

When he did, there were gasps from the Crucible crowd as the red barely moved from where Williams had left it as Yan made a complete hash of the shot.

“Wow. Good grief,” said David Hendon on Eurosport commentary. “Thin yes, but not that thin.

“He’s hit it but it’s barely moved.”

Foulds added: “It was the thinnest edge you will ever see.

“I don’t know how hard he would have needed to hit it for it to go in. About 1,000mph probably.”

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