Ronnie O'Sullivan is no stranger to an outspoken remark, and his comments after progressing to the last 16 of the World Championship on Saturday were no different.
O'Sullivan is vying for a record-breaking eighth World Championship title this year, and got off to a good start in the first round against Chinese youngster Pang Junxu.
He ultimately won out 10-7, and progressed to the second round after surviving an impressive late fightback from Pang - a player O'Sullivan thinks is "going to be around for a long time."
Job done. I gave it all I could today and I’m glad and grateful to be through. Well done to Pang too who played brilliantly pic.twitter.com/kIcoiF35uy
— Ronnie O'Sullivan (@ronnieo147) April 15, 2023
Saturday's opening day win sets the number one seed up for a second round matchup with either Ding Junhui or Hossein Vafaei - and a showdown between O'Sullivan and Vafaei would certainly be box office.
Last year, Vafaei was quoted as saying that O'Sullivan should retire from snooker, and that the Englishman was "not good for the game." The extraordinary rant from Vafaei saw him slam O'Sullivan's treatment of young snooker players as "disrespectful" and question what the legendary player had done for the game of snooker in his 20 years of playing.
After his first round win against Pang Junxu, Ronnie O'Sullivan came out firing in response to Vafaei's incendiary remarks.
Ronnie O'Sullivan comes out firing after World Championship win
Speaking to Eurosport after his first round win, Ronnie O'Sullivan was reminded of the possibility of facing Hossein Vafaei in the second round of this year's World Championship - a match that would be full of venom after Vafaei's outburst last year.
Needless to say, O'Sullivan had quite the response:
Has he been saying much about me this year? I think he’s learned to be quiet.
Don’t rattle my cage. I love it when they call me out, I love it when they give me stick. I just love it.
It turns me on. I get off on it. I need something to find so I’m hoping someone says something and hopefully I get better so I can have a reason to perform.
They are not going to say anything now are they because they probably realised it’s not a good tactic to play. We’ll see, but we’ll have some fun.
You can always count on Ronnie to add a bit of spice to the occasion, and this instance is no different.
Hossein Vafaei faces Ding Junhui over the next two days, with the winner progressing to the the second round to face O'Sullivan.
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