Ronnie O'Sullivan survived a major scare to defeat Matt Selt, who previously called him the 'biggest p**** on tour', in the quarter-finals of the Xi’an Grand Prix. The Rocket won three of the opening four frames but was pegged back to 4-4 before winning the decisive frame to seal a hard-fought victory.

The result saw O'Sullivan continue his storming start to the season after earning big wins over Bulcsu Revesz, Sijun Yuan and Hossein Vafaei. He will have been particularly pleased with his victory over Selt following comments made by his countryman two years ago.

Selt was involved in a fiery exchange with a fan after receiving a comment on his Instagram story about O’Sullivan being a poor role model. The 39-year-old said: "Rather not play than be an absolute c*** of a human," before calling O'Sullivan the "biggest p**** on tour."

While there is clearly no love lost between the pair, Selt previously gave O’Sullivan credit by admitting that facing the Rocket was always a frightening prospect.

Discussing who he thought was the greatest player of all time in 2021, Selt told Eurosport: "People have different theories on who is the greatest. [Stephen] Hendry has won the most world titles and Ronnie is the only player who can really eclipse that.

"I’m not a fence-sitter, but the older I become I do more fence-sitting. [John] Higgins is my favourite so it’s a bit of a boring answer really from me. I just think the way Higgins conducts himself is different class.

"If they were all in a room together, he’s the only one you wouldn’t know what he won because he is just that down to earth. I've always had respect for him. Ronnie scares the living s*** out of me. When I play him, I just can't breathe."

It remains to be seen if O'Sullivan will follow up his victory over Selt by claiming his first title of the season at the Xi’an Grand Prix. He endured a disappointing end to the previous campaign, fumbling the chance to take the Triple Crown at the World Snooker Championship.

The Rocket was dumped out in a surprise defeat to Stuart Bingham, denying him the opportunity to pick up his eighth world title. Not many people saw it coming, given that O’Sullivan had won the UK Championship and the Masters earlier in the season.