Ronnie O’Sullivan claims he was ‘turned on’ by putting Ali Carter under pressure during their exhilarating Masters final on Sunday evening. The Rocket, who won the eighth Masters title of his career with a 10-7 victory, added that he ‘loves it’ when an opponent’s bottle goes after coming out on top in a charged-up meeting with one of his snooker rivals.
The war of wards started before a ball was potted, with O’Sullivan insisting that Carter ‘has something against him’ and suggesting that he is jealous of his trophy cabinet. The pair had a well-publicised row after knocking shoulders at the 2018 World Snooker Championship.
Carter looked on course to clinch the first Masters crown of his career when he took a 6-3 lead over O’Sullivan at the start of the evening session. But the 48-year-old recovered to take the match 10-7, and he rubbed salt into his defeated opponent’s wounds with a startlingly honest post-match interview.
“I just had to keep Ali honest, I thought let’s see if he has the bottle to get over the line,” the Rocket told Eurosport. “That was the only thing that turned me on tonight.
“Let’s just get him to that point. I want to see if he twitches. I love seeing it when their bottle goes. I love it. You can play terrible and still get them in that position and it’s like, let’s see if you can do it. That’s what was driving me on tonight, get him to that point to go, come on, let’s see if you’ve got it.
“Not many people have. It’s a good place to find out, when you’re out there. Most of them do [feel it], there are very few that don’t. That’s my main asset really now, I just get them to that point and go, okay it’s about potting big balls and holding yourself together.
“There’s a few on the tour that can do it but not many, so I always like to get them in that situation and see if they can produce. You know when someone’s bottling it, I’m not saying Ali did, but he let me off the hook tonight, he gave me some breathing space and that gave me a little bit of confidence.”
In becoming the oldest Masters champion of all time, O’Sullivan has put himself on course to complete snooker’s coveted triple crown in one season. He won the UK Championship in December, beating Ding Junhui in the final.
A win at the World Snooker Championship in May would complete the set. Only Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis and Mark Williams have won all three events in one season.
O’Sullivan claims he will have a good idea by March as to whether his game is of the standard to feel confident at the Crucible, adding: “At the moment I’d probably say it’s not good enough.”
