Ronnie O'Sullivan v Ali Carter Masters snooker showdown: 'Mr Angry, Mozart and Stephen Fry's perfect break'

Updated 14/01/2024 at 12:19 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ali Carter have enjoyed some stirring battles at the World Championship in Sheffield, but will meet in the Masters final on Sunday for the first time at the Alexandra Palace in London. It is an occasion that is ripe for drama aplenty with neither man willing to take a backward step – on or off the old green baize. Stream the 2024 Masters live on Eurosport and discovery+

O’Sullivan wraps up win over Murphy in Masters semi-final

"Ronnie O'Sullivan, the Mozart of snooker, has just made as magisterially perfect a clearance as I've ever seen. I'm bathed in bliss." – Stephen Fry, actor, comedian, writer and dedicated snooker lover

Ronnie O'Sullivan's latest meeting with old foe Ali Carter in the 50th final of the elite invitational Masters on London on Sunday will bring the memories flooding back of several memorable and madcap sporting dust-ups between the battle-hardened Essex duo.

Most notably O'Sullivan's famous and celebrated 92 clearance in the seventh frame of the 2012 World Championship final that attracted the affection of A Bit of Fry and Laurie.

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And also the time when the duo infamously collided and attracted the ire of referee Paul Collier during a heated confrontation at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre melting pot six years later.

Six years on from brushing each other up the wrong way, they are back in the furnace of a major final at the Masters at the Alexandra Palace showing little signs of creaking in their respective technically gilded cue actions.

After O'Sullivan lost 6-2 to emerging talent Judd Trump in the quarter-finals of the 2012 Masters, this onlooker recalls chatting to Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White on the day of the final between Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy – won 10-6 by Robertson at the Alexandra Palace – about a possible changing of the guard in the sport.

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Jimmy was asked: "Back in the 1980s people would be sitting with a pint and a cigarette when they were playing. Do you think there are the same personalities in the game?"

"Of course, you look at O'Sullivan," responded the six-time world finalist. "You never know what he is going to do. He can be fantastic one minute. He is the most naturally gifted player I've seen, and he is getting whacked by Trump at the moment, so it is all good for the game.

"Ronnie is taking it well. I know O'Sullivan and he will be out to put this all right by the World Championship."

One wondered if White thought he had the minerals for another world title having gone four years since lifting the trophy for a third time in 2008?

White said: "Ronnie has got five or six world titles left in him. He is too good. He is far too good."

Time has been good to such learned predictions with O'Sullivan adding another four world crowns to his haul of seven over the next decade with three Masters bagged to increase his collection to seven and counting.

After becoming the oldest and youngest winner of the UK Championship with his eighth victory at the event in a rousing 10-7 win over Ding Junhui last month, O'Sullivan has the chance to become the oldest and youngest winner of the Masters on Sunday following his outstanding 6-2 win over Shaun Murphy in the last four.

O'Sullivan is 18-1 clear of Carter on the career head-to-heads since their first meeting in the last 32 of the 2001 UK Championship with O'Sullivan completing a 6-4 win in the quarter-finals of the International Championship in November. He also won their two previous duels at the Masters.

But Carter is not looking to the past for inspiration having lost two world finals to the world No. 1.

“I have every confidence. I’ve just got to worry about my game and I’m relishing the challenge. What better than to play the greatest player of all time on the biggest stage? It doesn’t get any better," he said after running in three centuries in a 6-3 win over Mark Allen in the semi-finals.

“To not be in awe is the main thing for me to concentrate on tomorrow and to enjoy it. I need to enjoy the occasion. I probably didn’t enjoy the two world finals as much as I should have done.

"Looking back now, I’d love to rewind the clock and just enjoy it. That is what I’m going to do."

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A sick performance from snooker GOAT

It was sick and remains perhaps the sickest performance of his Rocket-fuelled 31-year professional career.

Ronnie O’Sullivan has previously cited his 18-11 win over fierce Essex rival Ali 'The Captain' Carter in the 2012 World Championship final as his finest triumph in the sport, but revealed how his greatest day at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre almost became a nightmare on Norfolk Street.

Having ended a three-year wait to claim a 23rd ranking title at the German Masters with a 9-7 success over Stephen Maguire only three months earlier, O’Sullivan would progress to end his four-year wait for a fourth World Championship with an inspired performance against Carter, who he had defeated 18-8 in the 2008 final.

He pieced together 12 century breaks at the Crucible 12 years ago, including the highest break witnessed in a world final of 141 moving 5-3 ahead, a contribution matched by John Higgins in the 2017 final against Mark Selby, who then topped the lot with his 147 maximum in the 2023 final against Luca Brecel.

“My best moment was in 2012 when I enjoyed it from start to finish,” said O'Sullivan.

Despite his fondness for the consistency of his technique, long potting and break-building that overpowered Peter Ebdon, Mark Williams, Neil Robertson and Matthew Stevens in reaching the 36th world final at the Crucible, O’Sullivan revealed how he was almost robbed of his return to glory.

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“I’ve had plenty of bad sleeps in Sheffield and recovered from them. That’s a minor,” he told Eurosport.

“There are other things that can happen during those 17 days when you think: ‘God, how do I deal with this one?’

“Like your tip coming off. That’s a nightmare when you have to put a new tip on and have to play through this. Or you get food poisoning.

"On the morning when I played Ali Carter, I was spewing up all morning. I was ill. I was absolutely knackered when i went out for the first session. I thought: ‘I’ve come all this way and I’ve been spewing up all morning’. I had spots on my face and i felt awful.

“But I got through the first day and on the second day I was flying. I thought ‘wow’. But that first day could have killed me off.

“I had done all the hard work only to fall ill on the day of the final. You need a bit, and sometimes a lot, of luck in that tournament for everything to fall into place for you.

"I’ve never told anyone that. I just remember waking up and being sick all morning. and just thinking: ‘what’s happened to me?’

“It probably was food poisoning and I was shocked I was able to play that well feeling so bad. In the evening I struggled a bit, but the next day I was as fresh as a daisy.

“I was fortunate with that one.”

With the final locked at 3-3 in the first session, Carter missed a red to a centre pocket trailing 16-0, but probably thought he would return to the table with the pink and black out of commission, and several reds welded to side cushions.

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The late Willie Thorne, watching with some relish in the commentary box, boldly predicted that "he'd do well to get above 20 here" before witnessing O'Sullivan embark upon his own version of creative genius with only a snooker stick to apply his colourful brush strokes.

Who needs the pink and black when you are capable of making a white ball dance to your own tune as much as Mozart composing sheet music.

What transcended was an adventurous 92 break of epic proportions better than the three centuries he made in that final.

It ranks alongside Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins and his do-or-die 69 clearance trailing White 15-14 in a 1982 world semi-final he would win 16-15 on his way to lifting his second world title.

And also Rocket Ronnie's own outlandish 82 he produced in the 18th frame of his 17-11 win over John Higgins in the 2022 semi-finals.

"People ask my best ever break.. this is it.. Six mins of pure class," said O'Sullivan.

Mr Angry gets a Rocket

O'Sullivan v Carter has never been game for a laugh. Rocket Ronnie had twice defeated 'The Captain' Carter in the 2008 and 2012 World Championship finals, but nothing in those matches had prepared the public for physical confrontation during an infamous 2018 encounter in the last 16.

With Carter holding a 9-7 lead ahead of the feisty final session and the tension palpable inside the Crucible, the pair deliberately bumped shoulders as O'Sullivan returned to his seat having fluked a snooker during a 19th frame he would lose 58-29 to trail 11-8.

Hollering from a sedentary position, an irate O'Sullivan appeared to shout: "That's for being Mr Angry."

Carter responded: "Thank you very much, very nice of you."

"Stop being angry then," said O'Sullivan sinking his water as referee Paul Collier collared and warned the duo to defuse the situation.

Carter would proceed to gain a measure of revenge for four previous defeats at the World Championship by snaring the final two frames he needed for a 13-9 success, his solitary career victory over O'Sullivan.

"I just thought, ‘Listen, I’m not intimidated by Ronnie like a lot of other players are, I’ve been through harder things than that in my life’," he said.

“He barged me, but I’m sorry, I’m not going to be bullied by anyone.

"It was nothing really, I was walking to the table and he was walking to his chair.

"There was a lot of tension out there. It means a lot, it's a big tournament."

As is the way of the snooker world, there was further confusion when Carter later said O'Sullivan apologised, a claim refuted by the 40-time ranking event winner.

"I didn't apologise to Ali," he said. "It was more like, 'let's just move on'. It was what it was, I've got to see you and you've got to see me at tournaments.

"So we can say hello to each other. We're not boxers, we're not enemies. It's just a game of sticks and balls. I'm happy with my life, you are happy with your life. Let's just be friends."

Plenty of respect then, but history suggests this final certainly isn't a cuddly snooker version of friends reunited.