Ronnie O’Sullivan's greatest World Snooker Championship grudge matches – 'From Mr Angry to The Torturer'

Updated 20/04/2023 at 10:53 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan will face Hossein Vafaei in a grudge match of epic proportions in the last 16 of the World Championship on Friday. The defending champion admits he is inspired by opponents criticising him with Vafaei happy to take the bait by taunting a "disrespectful" O'Sullivan before the showdown. We look at Rocket Ronnie's top five grudge matches from a record 30 years at the Crucible.

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Ronnie O'Sullivan has been no stranger to some glorious grudge matches during 30 years as the headline act at the World Championship in Sheffield.

And that is just how the snooker GOAT likes it ahead of his latest very public tête-à-tête at the sport's main table.

His best-of-25 frame second-round match with a vocal Hossein Vafaei on Friday, Saturday and Sunday seems ripe for repercussions with the pair content to continue exchanging verbal barbs after the Iranian player urged O'Sullivan to retire last year.

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"Has he been saying much about me this year?," said O'Sullivan, who completed a 10-7 win over Pang Junxu in the first round to get his quest for an eighth world title up and running.

"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."

Step forth the 'Prince of Persia' to put his best foot forward as Vafaei focussed on O’Sullivan's remarks after a 10-6 win against 2016 finalist Ding Junhui in the first round.

“The Crucible is going to be my home,” said the former Shoot Out winner.

“I have to play like that and show a performance like that to show the people and shut some people’s mouths. And to show them what I can do.

“I was quiet and I was respecting him. But I saw so many people sending some interview or something like that.

"He is what he is. He is such a nice person when he is asleep."

The three-day collision at the Crucible will begin on Friday at 2:30pm live on Eurosport with two more sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

“If Hossein thinks it can help him, then so be it, but it could reverse on Hossei," said Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White, the six-time world finalist.

"So, I'd rather him just do his talking on the table. It's all nonsense to me.”

Despite the pre-match hyperbole, it will need to go a bit to match up to the top five rocket-fuelled feuds on snooker's biggest stage.

Vafaei wants to 'shut' O'Sullivan's mouth as he flames rivalry

5. O’Sullivan v Robidoux – 1996 World Championship first round

Coming slap bang in the heart of the Britpop era, the young Ronnie was likened to the Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher in looks, no-nonsense swagger, attitude and ability to generate red top headlines beyond potting reds.

His trip to the 1996 tournament invoked the spirit of snooker's ultimate sporting hell-raiser Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins when he was fined £30,000 for assaulting a tournament official, but was hardly shy and retiring when it came to turning up the noise on the table.

One tabloid summed it up succinctly with the headline: 'Don't Screw Back in Anger'.

He lost 16-14 to Peter Ebdon in the semi-finals, but his campaign was overshadowed by a bad-natured bust-up with Canada's Alain Robidoux in the first round in Sheffield.

O'Sullivan ran out a 10-3 win over the Canadian, who was furious when his 20-year-old opponent began playing shots left-handed having constructed an 8-2 overnight advantage.

The 1997 World Championship semi-finalist accused O'Sullivan of being "disrespectful" despite his ambidextrous excellence becoming a ground-breaking manoeuvre on the old green baize.

Ronnie O'Sullivan speaks to the media at the 1996 World Championship.

Image credit: Eurosport

“He was rubbish – he shouldn't have been on the same table as me. I was rubbish as well, but I still beat him 10-3,'' said O'Sullivan.

“I felt comfortable playing left-handed. I've made 90-breaks with my left-hand. I'm better with my left hand than he was with his right. Anyway, the crowd enjoyed it and that's the main thing.''

Robidoux continued playing in the ninth frame of the ill-natured match despite trailing by 43 points with only the pink and black on the table.

“It was good for the crowd, but not for the player," he said. "I was playing badly and he was doing that. It was just disrespectful. Ronnie doesn't need to do that – he is a talented player.”

He refused to shake O'Sullivan's hand at the end of their fiery encounter, but later apologised for misreading a situation that was alien to Alain.

"I wish I had started playing left-handed sooner," O'Sullivan told Eurosport. "I was playing so poorly with my right hand that I should have switched. I knew that I could pot balls with my left hand. But I was aware that people might have thought I was taking the mickey.

"It just got to the point where I wish I had done it sooner because it was relaxing me. Alain didn't take it too well. I could understand that at the time. But once I started, it soon became acceptable.

“I beat Peter Ebdon 6-1 in the semi-finals of the Premier League in Kettering a year later playing with my left hand. People quickly realised that I could play as well at times with my left as my right.

“I won seven frames against Stephen Hendry playing with my left hand in a 10-8 win in the final. And he was world champion at the time.

“It was unfortunate for Alain, but he apologised to me a couple of years later and said he didn't realise I could play as well as with my left.”

Alain Robidoux in action at the Crucible.

Image credit: Eurosport

4. O'Sullivan v Ebdon – 2005 World Championship quarter-final

Peter Ebdon was nicknamed 'The Force' during his 29-year career, but as a force of nature, the 2002 world champion specialised in getting under the skin of O’Sullivan. Most notably in the 2005 quarter-finals.

When Stephen Hendry asked Sullivan how he was handling the UK lockdown during an Instagram chat in 2020, he replied: "It's a mental test more than anything. I’d rather play Peter Ebdon over four days at the Crucible at his slowest – that's saying something."

O'Sullivan – the defending world champion after lifting the second of seven Crucible titles in 2004 – had built up an 8-2 lead, but his opponent was not for slipping quietly into the night as he dragged himself back into the match by deploying some of the dark arts of matchplay.

Boosted by a gruesome average shot time of 37 seconds and a highest break of only 60, Ebdon slowly turned the screw on O'Sullivan, who lost all sense of momentum in somehow losing the match 13-11 from a seemingly impregnable position.

"I've never seen anybody play that slow," said the 1991 world champion John Parrott in analysing the turgid fare on offer.

O'Sullivan could see the funny side when he recalled the infamous contest that included a 12 break in the 19th frame that took an unapologetic Ebdon over five minutes and 30 seconds to crawl through – slower than the Essex player's world record 147 effort of five minutes and eight seconds in 1997.

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Peter Ebdon during their infamous clash in 2005.

Image credit: Eurosport

"I think Peter holds the record for the world's slowest break. It is just fantastic. I think we should have a memorial award for him," he said.

"World Snooker should create an award for him titled 'The best worst slow break in the history of the game'. Ebbo would be proud of that.

"It was hard sitting through that. He kept getting the ball cleaned. And took five minutes to piece together 12 points. I made a 147 in around the same time it took him to make 12. You think, 'wow, that must have been slow'.

"Every frame seemed to go like that. I was glad when it was over for me in that match."

The enmity between the men continued at the 2012 World Championship when Ebdon lost 10-4 to O’Sullivan in the first round, but took his place in the final dressing room as Ali Carter’s coach and mentor.

O’Sullivan won the title match 18-11, but the timeline of bad blood would continue beyond that joust via Carter's ability to bend it like Ebdon.

3. O’Sullivan v Selby – 2020 World Championship semi-final

It is astonishing to think the first airing of this fierce rivalry in a ranking event came in the 2002 China Open quarter-finals with Mark Selby winning 5-3. Plenty of theatre has passed under the bridge hand since then.

Selby is more methodical than O'Sullivan, and some will argue to the detriment of the fare on offer, but both can make haste while the sun shines, score heavily and exhibit exceptional tactical awareness. There is also always a real edge whenever they cross cues in combat.

After Selby enjoyed a 13-11 win from 11-10 behind in the 2010 quarter-finals and an 18-14 victory in the 2014 final from 10-5 behind, the third Crucible installment provided a bruising world semi-final behind closed doors in 2020.

The intensity levels never faltered despite the rescheduled event being staged in the heat of August and played without a fan in the house apart from the air conditioning amid the global pandemic.

Having led 16-14 and seemingly on the cusp of the final with his tactical supremacy taking hold, O’Sullivan reeled off three frames as quickly as he changes tips with prodigious stands of 138, 71 and 64 enough to deny Selby at the death with an epic 17-16 victory.

O'Sullivan edges Selby in Crucible thriller

The aftermath prompted much consternation from the Selby corner about O’Sullivan walloping the ball to escape from snookers before winning the 30th frame to move two up with a possible three to play. Much of his criticism was borne out of frustration than fact.

“I just felt like it was obviously a bit disrespectful to me and the game,” said Selby.

“Obviously, if you are playing anybody else, there’s not many players who will get down and just hit them 100 miles per hour when you put them in a snooker.

“Sometimes they will try and work it out, try and play safe or try and get you in trouble back but I just felt he was doing that throughout the match really.

“So I just thought it was a little disrespectful to me and the game, but you’ll have to ask Ronnie himself.”

Despite his objections, the method in the madness all worked out like a dream for the sport's greatest player, who recovered from trailing 16-14 to reel off three rapid frames with a barrage of swashbuckling pots that took brinkmanship to fresh levels.

It was a sweet moment of revenge as O’Sullivan watched a player he once dubbed 'The Torturer' due to pace of play and matchplay skills to deny him a sixth world title with an 18-14 win in 2014.

O’Sullivan’s approach was not a revelation as he had vowed to avoid another tactical battle with Selby after commenting before the 2020 event that he was determined to win or lose on his terms after the mournful 2014 loss.

“I’m just going to blast them open, I’m not getting sucked into eight or nine frames of 50-minute frames because it destroys you," he said.

The pair were embroiled in more controversy during Scottish Open final later in the year that saw Selby complete a 9-3 win to equal Stephen Hendry’s haul of 11 straight victories in ranking event finals during the 1990s.

O’Sullivan felt the semi-final defeat at the Crucible haunted his old rival.

Mark Selby on Ronnie O'Sullivan: 'I felt it was disrespectful to me and the game'

“You know what, after playing Selby at the last tournament, I’ve realised that semi-final really has hurt him,” he said. “I didn’t realise at the time. I thought: ‘It’s just a game, he’s lost a semi-final. No big deal, he’ll probably come back and win it another time’.

“But when I watched his interview after that match, I could really see he was hurt. He was just focused on two shots out of a 33-frame match. He’s forgotten the 33 frames and just focused on two balls.

'Ridiculous' - Watch bizarre scenes over black between O'Sullivan and Selby

“I think that has scarred him in a way. I don’t think he’ll ever get over that because I think he thinks that is one world championship he lost that he can never get back.

“Even if he goes and wins it another one or two times, that match will still be in his head,” said O’Sullivan.

“That’s one I think he thought he definitely had won. The way he’s been recently, and some of the things he’s said, that has definitely bothered him so much more than I ever thought it would.

“I was really shocked to be honest with you, but he obviously has to deal with that in his own way.”

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ali Carter at World Championship.

Image credit: Eurosport

2. O’Sullivan v Carter – 2018 World Championship second round

O'Sullivan had twice defeated his old Essex foe Ali 'The Captain' Carter in the 2008 (18-8) and 2012 (18-11) finals, but nothing in those matches had prepared the public for physical confrontation during a combustible 2018 encounter in the last 16.

With Carter holding a 9-7 lead ahead of the feisty final session and the tension palpable inside the Crucible, the pair deliberately bumped shoulders as O'Sullivan returned to his seat having fluked a snooker during a 19th frame he would lose 58-29 to trail 11-8.

Hollering from a sedentary position, an irate O'Sullivan appeared to shout: "That's for being Mr Angry."

Carter responded: "Thank you very much, very nice of you."

"Stop being angry then," said O'Sullivan sinking his water as referee Paul Collier warned the duo to defuse the situation.

Carter would proceed to gain a measure of revenge for four previous defeats at the World Championship by snaring the final two frames he needed for a 13-9 success, his solitary career victory over O'Sullivan in 18 meetings.

"I just thought, ‘Listen, I’m not intimidated by Ronnie like a lot of other players are, I’ve been through harder things than that in my life’," he said.

“He barged me, but I’m sorry, I’m not going to be bullied by anyone.

"It was nothing really, I was walking to the table and he was walking to his chair.

"There was a lot of tension out there. It means a lot, it's a big tournament."

Carter in emotional celebration after win over O'Sullivan

As is the way of the snooker world, there was further confusion when Carter later said O'Sullivan apologised, a claim refuted by the 39-time ranking event winner.

"I didn't apologise to Ali," he said. "It was more like, 'let's just move on'. It was what it was, I've got to see you and you've got to see me at tournaments.

"So we can say hello to each other. We're not boxers, we're not enemies. It's just a game of sticks and balls. I'm happy with my life, you are happy with your life. Let's just be friends."

Relive O’Sullivan and Carter’s shoulder barge spat at 2018 World Snooker Championship

1. O’Sullivan v Hendry – 2002 World Championship semi-final

Bringing the fight game to the sobriety of men in bow ties does not offer prosperity, but the gloves were off for this one. Seconds out, round one in the semi-finals.

Ahead of his meeting with the seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry in 2002, O'Sullivan decided the best course of action was to indulge in a spot of boxing trash talk on the advice of his pal Prince Naseem Hamed, a figure who regularly turned up the Crucible back in the day to support the Scotsman.

Warming to the pugilism theme, he infamously said he would like to send his opponent "back to his sad little life in Scotland".

"I played him in the semi-finals a couple of years ago and we had this miss rule,” said O’Sullivan. "You know when a certain player has made a genuine attempt and a miss was called against me.

"I really thought a lot of Stephen until he had that ball put back, and he really did go down in my estimations after that.

"There is not a lot of respect there at all.

"The most satisfying thing for me would be to send him home to Scotland as quickly as possible for a nice summer off.

"I'll say hello to him because it's hard to ignore someone – but he's not my cup of tea."

It is a moment the Essex player always regrets, he later apologised to Hendry, but believes his friendship with Prince Naseem, the world featherweight champion, did not help before getting inside the ropes with a disgruntled opponent.

"I wonder, rightly, whether he’s been listening to a certain Sheffield boxer with a penchant for shooting his mouth off," said Hendry in his autobiography Me and the Table.

"In the last couple of seasons, my pal Prince Naseem has visibly switched his loyalties from me to Ronnie, and the latter has been spotted hanging out with Naz’s entourage. So it’s not surprising there’s a bit of fighting talk.”

The pre-match rituals backfired on O'Sullivan as he lost 17-13 in the semi-finals with Hendry admitting it is the only grudge match he ever played at the iconic Sheffield venue.

Hendry rolled in breaks of 125, 124, 122, 113, 100, 81, 73, 65, 63, 59, 58, 55 and 53 as he won five of the last six frames to progress to the final.

LIke Carter, Ebdon and Selby, punching the air in completing a victory that was as much about a two-finger salute in defending personal honour.

Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan chat during a match.

Image credit: Eurosport

"That was terrible. I blamed myself for that," said O'Sullivan. "It should never have happened. But I'm also blaming Naz for getting me so revved up.

"He said to me the day before the match: 'You should be more like this, or more like that'. It was okay for Naz because he was a boxer, but I'm a snooker player.

"You have to respect your opponent. In boxing, they like that sort of trash talk to sell tickets. It wasn't really me. I was easily led.

"When I said it, and when it came out, I was gutted. It is something I will always regret for the rest of my life. Stephen was my hero. I never a meant a word of it."