17 April 2023 , 13:21
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Hossein Vafaei has ignored Ronnie O'Sullivan's warning ahead of their second round clash at the World Championship, with the pair reigniting their rivalry.
Ahead of last year's World Championship, which O'Sullivan won, Vafaei claimed the Rocket should retire and accused him of being "not good for the game" of snooker. After O'Sullivan beat Pang Junxu 10-7 in his opening round match at this year's tournament, he was quick to bring up Vafaei's comments and warned him: "Don't rattle my cage!"
Speaking to Eurosport, the seven-time world champion said: "Has he been saying much this year? I think he's learned to be quiet. Don't rattle my cage! I'm just having fun. I love it when they call me out, I love it when they give me stick."
"I love it, it turns me on, I get off on it. I need it to fire me up so I'm hoping someone says something, so I can have a reason to perform. But they're not going to say it now, they probably realise it"s not a good tactic."
However, Vafaei has not backed down after beating Ding Junhi 10-6 to set up a second round match against O'Sullivan, saying the 47-year-old is "a nice person when he's asleep". Vafaei said: “Ronnie disrespected me before – and God gives us opportunities for revenge. It depends on me, and I said that to God myself.
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“I said to him ‘Don’t make that happen, because if you do make it happen then I am going to do the same what he done to me – and the same what I did when I beat him 5-0’.
“He will remember that, that wasn’t nice. Play like a man, don’t play mind games and disrespect me and smash the balls around when 70-80million people are watching me in Iran."
(Mark Stephenson/Action Plus/REX/Shutterstock)In an interview with the BBC, he added: "I think Ronnie O'Sullivan is such a legend, such a good player when he's on the table.
"I think he's such a nice person when he's sleeping, he's just such a nice person when he's asleep, you know what I mean. It's going to be a great match for the people I think sports need to have people like us who show something, at least.
"I don't have anything to lose, if he beats me 13-0 it's still the start of my career. At least I don't have fear of him."
O'Sullivan also revealed he had been struggling with a virus ahead of his first-round match, but Vafaei was quick to dismiss this as simply an "excuse". After being informed of O'Sullivan's illness, Vafaei replied: "He always finds an excuse for himself, he's been like that for 30 years."
He continued: "If I beat my hero, well used to be my hero, if I beat him I'm going to be dangerous for the tournament. I'm not going to disrespect other players, I've seen so many players playing well, like Neil Robertson, such a tough opponent for this tournament, but it's going to be great if I go to the final."