Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Ali Carter | 2022 Championship League Snooker

You can often tell a lot at this stage from a match by the break-off shot. What sort of break-off you're going to see on the other table to basically get them open as quickly as possible. Some of that match with Ronnie. Table two match featured Shousin Tong and Mark Allen and he was less impressed with the break-off shot than both men. A little disrespectful perhaps but I don't think we'll be seeing any of that here. It's funny actually Ronnie he's a bit old school in many ways you know you think of him as a sort of rebellious character but I think when it comes to the niceties of snooker he likes to see things done properly. We had that World Championship a couple of years ago the Joe Davis coaching book with him learning from the first ever world champion. That surprises me a little because Joe Davis was very very left eye dominant. He had a different stance and technique. His principles were absolutely correct. Fundamentals in terms of technique were utterly right. Stood up then and certainly stand up today. There's good opportunity there isn't any card to hit. It's awkward when you've had a bit of a break between matches tend to relax have a chat with fellow competitors and that's so much it's a refocus. Well yes and also of course they're not playing for a place in the next phase either way they're going home tonight. Oh well that's incredible Brown's gone in. Imagine trying to do that. Well done Ronnie O'Sullivan. Five Halle Carter. Had he played it with a little less pace the keyboard would have gripped the cloth just before it struck the ground and span away from it. Didn't happen. That's another mistake I think from Halle to get through to this red. Black is tied up. Pink is available. The bottom line is O'Sullivan amongst all the players on tour could have skipped this event. He didn't need to be here. He doesn't need the ranking points or the money I'm guessing but chose to come. It's another chance to play. He's missed that blue. O'Sullivan often said he picks and chooses his events but he tends to play most of them. Almost all of them actually. I think from a ranking point of view this match would be a little bit more important to Halle Carter than Ronnie. The world's top 16. Every point match that he plays is important to him. No that's right and it's a thousand pound difference so you know who's to say that could make the difference between him getting in the Masters or not come the end of the year. Chance here. I do think as well you know that they do have a rivalry on table. They still want to beat each other because they could be playing again you know a couple of tournaments down the line. Good memories fresh of this one. Well O'Sullivan now with a good scoring chance. I like to see rivalries. They are rivals these guys. It's quite a friendly circuit overall. As Dominic said you do find yourself sort of spending a lot of time with the other players at an event like this but all sports need these matchups. The rivalries that generate interest media and with snooker fans. You're not supposed to be friends are you? That's the bottom line. You can have friends in other walks of life. 16. I just think though Ronnie these days as he gets older. 17. Enjoys his running, enjoys his social life and the things outside of snooker is a more philosophical thing these days and I don't think rivalry does exist between these two. 24. Quite so heavily balanced on the O'Sullivan side of things. I think it's more of Ali perhaps. Yes I think that's true and when it comes to the actual meetings between them O'Sullivan has won almost all of them. Obviously the one people remember recently was at the Crucible three years ago when there was the shoulder barging. 32. Four years ago now. 33. I think O'Sullivan always wants the same thing which is just to play well and enjoy the process of what he's doing on the table. 40. 41. 46. Control positional shot. 47. It's hard to see him breaking down here. He could play a delicate cannon into the pink and red here if he wished. The red goes anyway so there wasn't any need for that. 54. There you go. The mains are the one with the rest. 55. 48. This black. 62. 63. Yes of course he has played quite a bit of snooker actually since the world championship in exhibitions where he's a great favourite. 70. The cue hasn't been out at all. 71. I was having a chat with Ronnie about practicing and obviously Ronnie treats majors, the big tournaments, with a lot of respect. He does put the time in but sometimes he'll do an hour, half an hour. Sometimes he'll fancy doing four or five hours in one day and if he does that sometimes he won't bother practicing at all for a couple of days afterwards. Very very hard to keep putting the hours in especially when you've been a professional for 31 years and given your whole life to the sport. I think he does more than people realise though. I've seen him at all sorts of tournaments, you know, his head down on the practice table. But yeah I mean it's hard to keep going. I think that was Stephen Hendry's issue in the end when he retired. He just didn't enjoy spending all day in the club anymore. 92. 93. Bullying some of these balls into the pockets now isn't he? To make hopefully this century. The black goes in and in it goes. Well regardless of the position in the group and of course he can't win it. A Ronnie O'Sullivan century is always special viewing. 102. Yes it's another one to add to the career total of course. Which now stands at 1171. 105. 109. 114. 120. Well it's been a wonderful break it really has. What about that? Clearance of 127 from Ronnie O'Sullivan. Neither player can win the group but they can still hopefully entertain us so Sullivan leads Carter 1-0. Ronnie O'Sullivan leads Ali Carter 1-0. This is a match that will decide third and fourth position in this group. O'Sullivan the lovely 127 clearance there in time one. Ali Carter to break. Interesting to see what sort of season O'Sullivan has. He put so much intensity into winning that seventh world title. It's not going to happen at every event surely but expected still to figure. Plenty of times as he knocks in that red. An hour or so ago about these some tables. The fact that we did feel that down the cushion rails pots going a little easier. Beautiful tables and they have been playing terrifically well this year's Betfixer Championship League. O'Sullivan very quick the cushions playing really nicely. I don't think the black's on its spot looking at that picture. It may still go into that left corner. The red that's next to the black will also pot into the left corner. I'm sure Ronnie will play for it here because that will really open it back up into play. It's on it but 14 straighter on it because I'm not sure he can play for the black now from this red. 15 is either one to screw off. Made it pretty well. It's not perfectly on this black by any means but he could be happy with it. 22 goes must do. Could be over fairly quickly. 23 look at the position of the balls. He has an angle on the black here Ronnie. He could play a delicate cannon into the two reds just below the pink. He didn't have to but I'm a little surprised. I think he'd have had a better angle on this red that is about to play. 30. Red next to the black. 31. Yeah I was talking about the head-to-head. If you count every match played in all tournaments big and small between these two then David O'Sullivan 19 wins to three so it is very one-sided. 36. For somebody as good as Ali Carter is as well and the confidence that he plays the game with and the fact he's been in two world finals. It's an incredible head-to-head record. Yeah of course they're two of the 19. Of course he did beat him at the Crucible as I mentioned but 40. All of the meetings down the years as well in various tournaments. One in Belfast one time where O'Sullivan made five centuries including a maximum to win the best of nine. Some of Ronnie's performances are astonishing. Absolutely annihilated Ricky Walden. It was in the Masters. He beat me in the semi-finals of the Northern Island Trophy in about 51 minutes or something. The standard of play that day was just something I've never seen before. He's lost his way there so just accepting Ronnie O'Sullivan 48. Yes that's the that's why he is the greatest ever because he's been doing it across the decades. He hasn't just been doing it a concentrated spell. He's still doing it now 30 years into his career as we saw at the Crucible this year. The oldest ranking event winner Ray Reardon at the age of 50. O'Sullivan's 47 this year. Of course he's already got the record as the youngest ranking event winner when he won the UK Championship at the age of 17. So he has time to well hold both as he knocks that one in. One. Four. Perform this way in some of his earlier matches. Five. Five frames. First match. A bit. He hasn't won any of those five frames. These thick frames are finally getting on the board. Twelve. That's the thing though of course there's no real pressure in this match. So he's sort of expecting to play well. Like you say he just didn't do it when it mattered earlier on. This frame is over if the black goes in. It's going to be two nil. Twenty. Twenty-one. Just the cannon there Ronnie. I always marvel he knows his fluency. It reminds me very much of a concert violinist. It's just beautiful. Twenty-eight. Well in off so end of break. Alicarta stays in his seat. Alicarta. Ronnie O'Sullivan. Leads two nil. Remember he needs one more for the three points. You can't say that's the killer blow. Well you can say it was a hammer blow. Devastating breaks. He's on the brink. O'Sullivan. Frame on the board. Looked mighty good in doing it. What a way to open your account for the season. I get the feeling it will not be his last trophy this campaign. So Alicarta trailing here two nil and facing the prospect of finishing in fourth position now in this group. The third frame. If it is a draw though he will still get third. O'Sullivan needs one more frame. He'll be he'll be third. Of course Pang Zhengxu has won the group. Yuan Sijun is second. So Pang's coming back on Friday. And tomorrow we've got our last two groups to decide the final eight in this year's Spetvikta Championship League. It's been a long tournament this. It's a 21 day event in total. This is day 19. So just two left. Get to the red that's closest to the left corner. That's the easiest spot. If he's not hampered by the yellow. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him attempt the cut back on the brown. Just beautifully timed. Go for the red that's near the black spot. Five. Cross into the opposite corner. He has the angle to play for it. Six. Purpose he left himself parallel to the black. So in plotting it go into the pack of reds and dislodge a few. Thirteen. The intention was to be on the red to the left centre but okay still. Fourteen. Beautifully judged. Great building patterns in the flash. Ronnie O'Sullivan always knows the right shot to play at the right time. He's made more century breaks than anybody else has. Eighteen. Nineteen. Yes. It's a talent from a very young age. There's a great story from when he was 10 years old. His dad went to a Chinese restaurant and one of the waiters said there's a snooker player in here. It turned out to be Steve Davis who at that time he wasn't world champion because he lost to Joe Johnson but he was the number one. Everyone knew that. The king of the 80s. Ronnie's dad went over and said my boy's a snooker player. He'll be world champion one day. Now you can imagine the amount of times Steve must have heard that over the years from people. Anyway he posed for a picture with young Ronnie which you see it's online and here we are all these years later O'Sullivan's gone past Davis's tally of world titles at seven and equals Stephen Hendry's. A lovely story Dave. I haven't heard it before actually. I really haven't. Thirty-five. I was a semi-raiser myself. Young and watching all the players of the day in tournament is amazing. But one day he turned professional himself and he claimed them all. Steve Davis and Terry Griffiths and all of these guys. My favorite player when I was living was Terry Griffiths. It was ironic I ended up living close to him and practicing with him as an amateur. Well I know this doesn't work for anyone watching but I'm now going to show Dominic the picture. I found it online of young Ronnie and Steve in the restaurant. Look at that. Look at Ronnie. Steve sitting down and Ronnie standing up and they're head high with each other. Well of course what he's done since is inspire so many other players O'Sullivan to take the game up themselves including a lot of the Chinese guys who are here. They all adore him actually although they didn't stop the two of them beating him today. 58. 59. And that's the best contribution any snooker player can make to this sport is play the game. Show us what you can do and O'Sullivan's done that in the last match. Not quite there yet though. Needed another red and a colour. 66. Yes I don't think Ronnie can even double the red into the left center the one that's the right of the cue ball because of the red that's between the blue and the pink there. I think it's in the way. So not quite done yet. Go on O'Sullivan. 66. I would though if this is to be the last round I'd like to wish Dominic all the best in Germany. A couple of weeks time for the European Masters against another legend Jimmy White. Always looking forward to playing Jimmy. It's always a great honor to play somebody that influenced so many professional players of today. Jimmy and Alex Higgins did. I'm sure hard to be taking this red on. 2-0 behind. 66 behind. It's a chance to get back in the frame if it goes in. Where's the cue ball? Might be better having gone off. 4. Next red will be from long distance. Needs one more red doesn't he so we can knock this in and decide whether that's the end of the day's entertainment. So it's not the end and there's enough on here. There's 75 on so it could take us to a fourth round. Apart from that tricky red that's the left-hand side cushion it's fancy to clear up from here but there are ways of dealing with that awkward red especially with the red that's near the right center. If you can on that red off the cushion. 6. Almost expecting to be on the red that's near the right center as a guarantee. 7. The angle here to screw back on the black and bring it into play. Maybe not. 14. 15. Becoming more isolated. The left-hand side cushion so I think Ali will have to try and bring it into play utterly. 23. John Higgins is very competent in playing a 30. 31. He certainly has an angle here to bring it into play. He's chosen to leave the double. 38. Key shot now for him tries to of course force the draw and finish third in the table. Well first things first needed to win this frame. Red's not in and again Sullivan has a chance to put it away and complete the whitewash and at least end the day with victory. It didn't start well for him. He lost 3-0 to Yuan Sijun. He lost 3-1 this evening to Pang Zhongju. Can he though finally win a match? Not yet. They were both watching that red weren't they to see how far it would run. But you know that will actually cut into the left center. Expect to be on possibly the brown or the pink from here. He needs at least a blue doesn't he? He's 32 behind. That surely that. Sullivan just needs the red. Carter getting ready maybe to concede. He's going to let him play it out. One. So of course there wasn't that much on the match other than who was going to finish third and fourth which for for these two I guess is not what they came here today to be thinking about. They wanted to win the group but the group like the week really been dominated by Chinese players. Pang Zhongju has won it. Yuan Sijun has finished second. Ronnie O'Sullivan with this victory finished third. So Ali Carter is in fourth position. But for both of them Championship League ends here today. 13. 17. Well we saw a bit of O'Sullivan magic in frame one. 127. Another one for the list. 28. Well all smiles at the end of the day. But it is of course Pang Zhongju has won the group. O'Sullivan beats Carter 3-0 in the last match. So Ronnie O'Sullivan ends this group in third position. That's confirmation. Pang Zhongju with seven points. Two wins in a draw. Yuan Sijun in second position. O'Sullivan third. Ali Carter fourth. And table two. Jiaxing Tong. Of course had already got that wrapped up after his first two matches. Drew the last match which was an exhibition affair with Mark Allen. Gary Wilson second place. He'll be in our commentary box tomorrow. So hopefully you'll be able to see him.