Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Allen: Ron is acting the Twit
MARK ALLEN insists you’ve got to take high flying Ronnie O’sullivan with “a pinch of salt”.
The rampant Rocket has been trolling the rest of the snooker tour on Twitter.
His recent rants have included suggesting he may miss the World Championship to film reality TV as well as branding everyone on the tour as “clueless” – except Mark Selby and John Higgins.
And Antrim ace Allen, who takes on O’sullivan in the quarter-finals at the Masters today, said: “You’ve got to take what he says on social media with a pinch of salt, I’m not worried about any of that.
“There’s no way he’ll miss the World Championship.
“I know Ronnie and away from Twitter he’s a nice guy – I think he just gets bored and tweets rubbish.
“I know I’ve got to be at my very best to beat him. He’s the sort of player you want to be beating to win these big titles.
“You want to lift the trophy and say ‘I beat Ronnie O’sullivan along the way’. You want to beat the very best.”
World No8 Allen has his hands full after the Rocket blasted past Marco Fu 6-0 in the first round.
Fu notching just 35 points as O’sullivan raced to victory in 82 minutes.
But O’sullivan is expecting a tougher test in the form of Allen today.
O’sullivan, who is bidding for an eighth Masters title, said: “Mark’s a great player and I just want to compete with him.
“I’ve been feeling ill, so hopefully I can shift it and it can be a great match for the fans.
“Mark’s been playing really well all season so it’ll be a tough game.”