After defeating Ali Carter to win the Masters, Ronnie O’Sullivan loses one of his records.
Rival Ali Carter put Ronnie O’Sullivan through a rigorous workout in the Masters Snooker final before the latter’s masterful snooker in the closing frames won him the match.
Before his match against Carter, O’Sullivan, a seven-time world champion, had won a record seven Masters titles. In the best-of-19 match, he fell down 5-3 after the opening session but rallied to tie the score at 6-6 and 7-7. In the 16th frame, he broke through with a break of 89 to take the lead and eventually sealed the victory despite some nerve-wracking moments at the end.
Ali Carter has quipped that Ronnie O’Sullivan is “starting to annoy” him after he was thrashed 10-7 in the Masters final.
In an exciting encounter, O’Sullivan prevailed after mounting a strong comeback to trail Carter 6-3 at one point. With his win, O’Sullivan has become both the oldest and the youngest champion of the competition. At the age of 19, he was the first to win the Paul Hunter Trophy in 1995.
After the final, though, Carter gave off a gracious look of defeat and said, “He’s starting to annoy me.” I’m obviously devastated by my defeat. It’s the end, and victory is everything. I would have taken the final before I showed up here, but I have excellent things ahead of me and I’m going in the right route.
“After missing a few at the end, Ronnie performed really well, and the audience became enthusiastic. You have to accept and play the crowd when you’re playing Ronnie. Despite my best efforts, it was insufficient.
In their 19 meetings, O’Sullivan has defeated Carter for the 18th time. Over the years, the two have developed a fierce rivalry. In the 2018 World Championship, they had their most notable altercation, with Carter saying he is “not intimidated by Ronnie like a lot of other players are”.
Ali let me off the hook tonight even though he didn’t play well this evening. He played better this afternoon. It gave me faith that he wouldn’t take on some of the balls I had assumed he would. I basically tried to take the most from it.
“In February or March, I usually have a solid sense of whether my game is ready to win the worlds. I wouldn’t say right now that it’s excellent enough to give me confidence to win. I want to feel confident that I can win, even though I still have a chance.”
