As for the incident in frame 13, O'Sullivan stressed: "I don't know what the rules are, but I didn't foul the black intentionally. I couldn't believe I took so many attempts to hit the yellow. I walked back to my chair and I expected John to be able to pot the red. I was a bit confused as it was a bizarre situation."
Higgins agreed: "Never in a million years did Ronnie foul deliberately, he is one of the most genuine people in snooker. It's probably never happened to Jan (Verhaas) before and it will probably never happen to him again, it was just a freaky position on the table. He was just applying the rules but maybe it should be left to him to have discretion."