Ronnie O’Sullivan has won the 2024 Masters title after a 10-7 triumph over Ali Carter in an entertaining final on Sunday in London.
Success at the prestigious invitational for the Rocket brings his tally of Masters crowns to a record-extending eight.
It matches the eight UK Championship titles he has acquired and marks the first time he has won consecutive Triple Crown titles in the same campaign.
O’Sullivan boasts 23 pieces of silverware from the majors overall, and attention will now turn to his quest for a record-breaking eighth World Championship at the Crucible Theatre.
There had been plenty of excitement leading up to the 2024 Masters showdown for glory between two players who have frequently failed to see eye-to-eye.
A lightning-fast opening session took less than two hours to complete, with both finalists in full attack mode.
As had been the case at various points earlier in the week, an at-times reckless O’Sullivan went for some outrageous shots.
While several spectacular pots were landed, there were other wild misses that gifted his opponent plenty of openings.
Carter sustained his high level of form from the tournament to capitalise at first, winning the first session 5-3 with the help of a couple of century breaks.
There was then a raucous atmosphere inside the Ally Pally when the pair returned for the evening session of play.
The Captain, who was bidding for a maiden Triple Crown title, extended his cushion to 6-3 and it appeared as though an upset was really on the cards.
Yet O’Sullivan dug deep, and realising how well Carter was performing he finally ditched the overly relaxed approach in favour of harder match snooker.
The 48 year-old strung together three frames on the spin to restore parity at the mid-session interval.
To Carter’s credit, the underdog returned after the mini break to compile a tremendous 127 and become the first player in Masters history to compile nine tons in a single edition of the event.
But there were key exchanges in the following two frames which swung the clash back in the favourite’s favour.
Carter appeared to become distracted by the crowd’s increasingly boisterous nature and missed a couple of crucial pink balls, with O’Sullivan taking the front for the first time since the opening frame.
When the world number one subsequently compiled a run of 89 to make it 9-7, the contest looked all but over.
So it proved, with O’Sullivan needing a couple of contributions but getting over the winning line in the next frame to become the oldest ever Masters champion.
That he was also the youngest champion all the way back in 1995 underlines his incredible longevity at the very pinnacle of the sport.
The Englishman collects a cool champion’s cheque worth £250,000 while victory in another prestigious tournament reaffirms him as the game’s greatest of all time.
2024 Masters
– draw, live scores, results –
Last 16 (bo11)
Judd Trump 6-5 Kyren Wilson
Mark Williams 4-6 Ali Carter
Mark Selby 6-1 Robert Milkins
Mark Allen 6-5 John Higgins
—
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-3 Ding Junhui
Neil Robertson 3-6 Barry Hawkins
Shaun Murphy 6-2 Zhang Anda
Luca Brecel 2-6 Jack Lisowski
Quarter-Finals (bo11)
Judd Trump 5-6 Ali Carter
Mark Selby 5-6 Mark Allen
—
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-3 Barry Hawkins
Shaun Murphy 6-3 Jack Lisowski
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Ali Carter 6-3 Mark Allen
—
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-2 Shaun Murphy
Final (bo19)
Ali Carter 7-10 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Featured photo credit: WST
Ronnie O’Sullivan played and beat the form man of the tournament without ever being fully convincing, I think that he has an aura now against certain players, which makes him twice the opponent for them. Coincidentally he played two of those players in the last two rounds here. He was far too much for Shaun Murphy who made two centuries to lose 6-2, but I feel that had O’Sullivan played Carter in any other round other than the final he may not have beaten him this year.
He never hit top gear like in his supreme display against Ding in the UK Final. What tonight showed is that when he applies himself he can produce tough match snooker that compares favourably with anyone. This side of his game has become more prevalent in the last decade enabling him to improve his tournament winning strike rate.
O’Sullivan has now got the opportunity to become only the fourth player, after Hendry, Davis and Williams, to win the Triple Crown in the same season. To achieve that at the same time as the record breaking 8th world title would surely be the finest moment of his illustrious career.
The needle added plenty of frisson to a compelling encounter with two very different sessions. Neither man said a word to each other when fist-bumping at the end. Carter did similar, however, when he lost to Bingham from a similar position of strength in the 2020 final.
O’Sullivan has won back-to-back Triple Crown events on two other occasions: 2001 World Championship and 2001 UK Championship, and his successive world titles in 2012 and 2013 were back-to-back Triple Crown events as he didn’t enter the UK Championship and Masters in between those two Crucible wins.
He’s won back-to-back Triple Crown events on two other occasions: 2001 World and UK Championships, and the 2012 and 2013 World Championships.
In the modern era the record for successive Triple Crown event wins is five – Stephen Hendry 1989 UK Championship through to the 1991 Masters.
Ronnie makes snooker a excellent sport to watch . Keeping it interesting and competitive.. plus has an exhilarating talent to boot. .
Ronny is the best player ever and will never be beaten. Ali Carter is a loud mouth and he slaged ronny off on a t v interview 2 years ago Carter is so jealous of ronny and he will never be able to beat ronny and glad he lost and the crowd was glad to
Ali as proven he can be a top sixteen player. He deserved to be in the final haven beaten Williams, Trump and Allen, ROS is GOAT but sometimes can be over attacking depending on his mood. Never dull to watch, for sure 😉