Mark Williams has questioned Hossein Vafaei for his comments directed towards Ronnie O'Sullivan, saying that he should not have wound up the world number one.
Vafaei made the comments about O'Sullivan after his 10-6 first round win against Ding Juhui, reigniting a feud which stretches back to the 2022 tournament where Vafaei sad that the seven-time world champion should 'retire'. Admitting that he once respected O'Sullivan, Vafaei has now gone the opposite direction to launch a barrage of comments towards O'Sullivan.
After his win on Monday, Vafaei was not shy in resuming the feud with O'Sullivan, with comments made to Eurosport :. He 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 70-80million people are watching me in Iran."
The winner of their match, which starts on Friday, will play against Mark Williams or Luca Brecel in the next round of the tournament and former three-time world champion Williams has warned the 28-year-old Iranian not to wind up O'Sullivan.
He told Eurosport : "Why would you wind him up?" He added. "He will probably win with a session to spare now," the Welshman added as a prediction, backing O'Sullivan to respond very impressively to the broadside.
"He said he used to be his friend, but he said 'yeah, not any more'. Nice!" He continued. "He is blaming him now for disrespecting his family!"
O'Sullivan has continued his dominance at the top of the sport in recent years, with comments criticising the quality of young players coming through in the sport. The 28-year-old Vafaei is one of those who are coming through to begin to challenge the established order of the 47-year-old O'Sullivan and Williams, 48.
In 2020, Ronnie 'The Rocket' said in an interview with the BBC at the World Championships that the youngsters in the sport would make 'half-decent amateurs', he explained: "Probably not if you asked me then but when you look at the standard of play, I would say yes.
"People like me, John Higgins and Mark Williams, if you look at the younger players coming through, they are not that good really. Most of them would do well as half-decent amateurs, not even amateurs. They are so bad.
"A lot of them you see now, you look at them and think, 'I would have to lose an arm and a leg to fall out of the top 50'. That is why we are still hovering around, because of how poor it is down that end."
O'Sullivan won that year's tournament, before repeating the feat in 2022 to go some way towards justifying his comments, but this weekend's matchup will be a must-watch for fans of the sport as the outspoken representative of the younger generation, Vafaei, challenges O'Sullivan.
