Ronnie O’Sullivan proved there were no hard feelings after thrashing rival Hossein Vafaei at the World Snooker Championship.
The defending champion cruised into the last eight with a dominant performance, winning six of Saturday’s eight frames and winning 13-2 with a session to spare. Pre-match tensions had been ramped up with Vafaei pulling no punches in his assessment of the Rocket.
Ahead of last year’s tournament at the crucible, Vafaei claimed O’Sullivan should retire and accused him of “not being good for the game”. And he stoked up the faux rivalry again this time around, when jokingly suggesting his opponent was a nice person…when he was asleep.
