Ronnie O’Sullivan wary of Hossein Vafaei threat in UK Championship semi-final – ‘If I go missing I’ll get beat’

Ronnie O’Sullivan says he will be looking to “keep up” with Hossein Vafaei when the pair meet in the UK Championship semi-finals.

He will meet Iran’s Hossein Vafaei in the final four after he beat Zhang Anda 6-4 in Friday’s other afternoon quarter-final.

Vafaei will be making his debut in a semi-final of a Triple Crown event, but O’Sullivan insists he will not underestimate his opponent.

“I’m going to try and keep up with him,” the world No. 1 told Eurosport.

“He’s playing really well, scored well last night. It was a different match today against Anda he was playing a winner. Proper player.

“For him to win that is a proper win. I’m going to have to play well for 70-80% of the match to have a chance. If I go missing like I did today I’ll get beat, he’s playing too well for that.”

O’Sullivan has regularly spoken of his difficult relationship with the game of snooker, but after beating Zhou he gave some insight into his thought processes to keep him pushing through in the tough moments.

He said: “Well, I was thinking to myself what else would I be doing?”

“I’m out there, a nice venue, even if I got beat 6-0 it’s not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon. I always think of it. I’m always thinking what else would I be doing on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday evening when I’m out there I’m probably not enjoying it, struggling.

“But otherwise I’d be watching [The] X Factor or something so that’s how I equate it. It can be frustrating out there sometimes and find a way to be like ‘it’s actually alright being here’.

“It’s not a normal job is it, it’s a nice kind of job in a way. Just trying to fathom out why you’re missing balls is the thing. I must’ve gone through about 14 different cue actions out there today and then in the end I went ‘just commit’.”

Zhou was within a frame of beating O’Sullivan for the first time in his career. After the match, he said he still enjoys playing The Rocket as he learns a lot when he plays him.

“His first two frames Ronnie played good and so quickly. At 3-0 down I felt some pressure. Turning it back to 4-4 I thought I had the chance to win, but the last two frames I thought Ronnie played fantastic, I didn’t have a lot of chances.

“It’s a big learning for me. When you play players like Ronnie you don’t have a lot of chances, you need to make the chances for yourself. His safety is very good. All the time when he is in the cushion I cannot pot the long ball. I’m learning from this guy.

“I want to win because it was so close but I’m still happy but it’s not bad for me. I’m enjoying these games.”