Ronnie O’Sullivan beats Ali Carter in Masters final to claim eighth title after evening fightback
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Ronnie O’Sullivan turns 3-6 deficit into 10-7 victory against Ali Carter at Alexandra Palace to win the Masters for the first time since 2017; O’Sullivan sets up shot at clean sweep of this season’s Triple Crown events at World Championship in April
Last Updated: 14/01/24 10:02pm
Ronnie O’Sullivan has won back-to-back Triple Crown events in the same season for the first time
Ronnie O’Sullivan fought back to defeat Ali Carter and claim a record-extending eighth Masters title to become the historic tournament’s oldest winner, having already been its youngest, in a closely-fought final at Alexandra Palace on Sunday.
The ‘Rocket’ trailed Carter 3-6 after the first frame of the deciding evening session but upped his game when it mattered most to win seven of the final eight frames and secure a 10-7 triumph to claim the Paul Hunter Trophy for the first time since 2017.
As with the UK Championship, which he won for an eighth time in December, the 48-year-old O’Sullivan is now the oldest and youngest winner of the Masters tournament.
His latest triumph comes 29 years after his first in 1995, when he was 19.
It also means he has won the first two Triple Crown events of the season, with the World Championship to come from April 20 when he will aim to become the first eight-time champion.
Only Steve Davis (1987-88), Stephen Hendry (1994-95, 1995-96) and Mark Williams (2002-03) have won all three Triple Crown events in the same season.
For Carter, the Sunday evening turnaround meant his long hoodoo in matches against O’Sullivan continued. Carter has only beaten the seven-time champion once in 19 meetings, with the sequence having already included two losses in World Championship finals.
Carter, 44, recorded three century breaks in the final, including an impressive 127 in the one frame he did win in the evening session, to set a new record of nine centuries overall during the Masters tournament, one more than O’Sullivan’s previous record.
More to follow…
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