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DOMINIC DALE revealed Ronnie O’Sullivan is the only player he has felt intimidated by during a match.
The two both turned professional in 1992 and have been competing on the main tour against each other ever since.
Getty
GettyO’Sullivan is one of the greatest players of all time while Dale won two ranking titles and peaked at number 19 in the world rankings.
The pair first met in 1993 World Championship qualifying and the Rocket won 11 of their 12 matches head to head.
And Dale said on the Snooker Scene podcast: “Ronnie’s the only player that I can ever say I found intimidating to play against.
“Not just his style of play, because he can wipe you off the table in no time. It’s just because he’s such a character.
“He’s a very aggressive person, Ronnie. In life generally as well as on the table and you feel that, it comes through when you’re playing him and you’re sat in your chair.
“If you make a mistake and he makes an 80-odd in no time at all it is frightening.
“You think, ‘Jeez, I can do this on the practice table, probably at half the speed, but I’m never likely to play with this much freedom in a match,” and he can really embarrass you.’
“All of a sudden he can make a difficult game look impossible. You can be 3-0 down in no time, playing Ronnie, and all of a sudden a black off the spot becomes 10 times harder. It’s very intimidating.
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“It took me a long, long time to get over the intimidatory factor that Ronnie always has.
“It’s only the last five or six times I’ve played Ronnie, that I’ve actually played the player and not the person.
“I have beaten him in China and I’ve lost a couple of close matches and it’s nice to play a little bit against him because sometimes I have played Ronnie and just been completely inept because I’ve been completely overawed playing him.’
The 53-year-old Dale has announced he will retire from snooker at the end of the season – bringing to a close a 33-year career at the top.
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