Ronnie O'Sullivan says sorry to Northern Ireland Open fans: 'I'm really apologetic'
RONNIE O'SULLIVAN apologised to fans on live TV after his first-round Northern Ireland Open win over Soheil Vahedi.
O'Sullivan, who won the Champion of Champions on Sunday, crushed Vahedi 4-0 in the first round this afternoon.
He missed five balls in a routine win but failed to fulfil a Twitter vow he made in the build-up.
O'Sullivan pledged to his 412,000 followers that his average shot time would be less than Usain Bolt takes to run 100 metres.
He wrote: "Today’s game plan, no more then 5 safety shots a frame, and I’m gonna try to get my average shot time down to sub 10 secs, @usainbolt watch out."
I try to stay true to the fans so I'm really apologetic to them
But he was told by Eurosport host Colin Murray after that he had in fact taken 14 seconds.
It left O'Sullivan shaking his head and moaning: "14 seconds? I was a bit slow.
"I thought as i walked round 'I'm really slowing my average up here'. I try to stay true to the fans so I'm really apologetic to them.
"I'll try and get it down the next time I play.
"If your positional play is good enough, in theory you shouldn't have to walk around too much."
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On his ongoing battle to keep interested in snooker, O'Sullivan added: "I think you have to keep motivated within a speech.
"When you're here there and everywhere sometimes you have to set yourself little challenges and make it fun.
"For me, rather than take it serious and play really hard match snooker, I take the exhibition route which is you want to perform, entertain and you an element of sharpness and concentration.
"I'll just try and keep the safety shots down to five a game and it will be a nice easy week - whether i win or lose it will be an easy week!"