Fierce rivals Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ali Carter will meet for the first time since the Masters final on Wednesday.
The pair will lock horns in the quarter-finals of the Tour Championship at the Manchester Central after Carter came through his opening test against Barry Hawkins.
Once the draw for this year’s event was made, a lot of eyes immediately turned to O’Sullivan’s potential date with the Captain.
The two Englishmen have famously not seen eye to eye, sparking an incident-packed rivalry over the years.
Their most recent showdown was at the Alexandra Palace in London, when they faced off against one another with the Masters silverware on the line.
O’Sullivan fought his way back from 6-3 down to deny Carter a maiden Triple Crown title, instead taking his own career Masters tally to a record-breaking eight.
However, there was a war of words between the duo in the aftermath, with Carter accusing his esteemed opponent of “disgusting” behaviour and “snotting all over the floor”.
When told this, O’Sullivan exploded with an expletive-laden rant, claiming that Carter “needs to sort his f****** life out”.
“I’m not going to skirt around it any more,” O’Sullivan continued. “Tip-toeing on egg shells around someone like that.”
“Playing snooker against someone like that is a nightmare. He’s not a nice person. It’s not a nice vibe he leaves around the table.”
O’Sullivan and Carter previously generated headlines, of course, for their bizarre shoulder-barge incident at the 2018 World Championship.
The 13-9 success for the latter on that occasion represents one of the few times Carter has gotten the better of things from their head-to-head.
In fact, O’Sullivan has won 23 out of their 26 encounters in all competitions since their first on the main tour all the way back at the 2001 UK Championship.
That dominance has included two glories in World Championship finals at Carter’s expense.
It will be interesting to see what the atmosphere between the players will be like when they meet again on day three of this week’s Tour Championship.
O’Sullivan is the current 5/2 outright favourite with bet365, the popular online bookmaker that has the complete betting odds on snooker and other sports like football today.
Elsewhere in the quarter-finals of this season’s penultimate ranking event, top seed Judd Trump meets Mark Williams on Thursday.
The match involving Ding Junhui and Mark Allen, and the one between Zhang Anda and Gary Wilson, will take place across both Wednesday and Thursday’s order of play.
2024 Tour Championship Draw
Round of 12
Mark Williams (8) 10-9 Tom Ford (9)
Mark Allen (5) 10-7 John Higgins (12)
Gary Wilson (6) 10-8 Mark Selby (11)
Barry Hawkins (7) 8-10 Ali Carter (10)
Quarter-Finals
Judd Trump (1) 4-10 Mark Williams (8)
Ding Junhui (4) 8-10 Mark Allen (5)
Zhang Anda (3) 8-10 Gary Wilson (6)
Ronnie O’Sullivan (2) 10-2 Ali Carter (10)
Semi-Finals
Mark Williams (8) 10-5 Mark Allen (5)
Gary Wilson (6) 7-10 Ronnie O’Sullivan (2)
Final (bo19).
Mark Williams (8) 10-5 Ronnie O’Sullivan (2)
Featured photo credit: WST
