O'Sullivan A Nice Person When He's Asleep, Vafaei Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – 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."
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.
“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 70-80 million people are watching me in Iran."