World Championship: Carter to meet O’Sullivan in final
Ali Carter and Ronnie O’Sullivan are meeting in this year’s World Championship final after Carter won 17-12 over Scotland’s Stephen Maguire and O’Sullivan obtained a 17-10 victory against the Welshman Matthew Stevens.
Carter and O’Sullivan had a similar encounter four years ago; back then the “Rocket” won by 18-8 and lifted his third world title, after the ones from 2001 and 2004.
After winning over Mark Davis, Judd Trump and Jamie Jones, Ali Carter had to face another tough opponent, Stephen Maguire, in his quest for a place in the grand final.
The “Captain” took a very good and solid start that got him a 5-3 advantage at the end of the first session and carried on by extending it at 10-6 at the end of the second one.
Breaks of 53, 134, 41 and 72 were enough to give Carter a push to 14-7, but Maguire fought back by firing in runs of 64, 70 and 32 to narrow the gap at four frames at the end of the third session.
However, as soon as the last of the remaining sessions kicked off, Carter stormed in to win two consecutive frames with just a top break of 41 and get himself closer to having a place secured in the final, 16-10.
The Scottish player didn’t give in and prolonged the suspense by cashing the next couple of frames, before Carter could win the match thanks to a 70 break.
The second semi-final saw Ronnie O’Sullivan taking down another Welshman (after Mark Williams), Matthew Stevens losing the chance to reach the final by 17-10.
O’Sullivan’s dominance throughout the entire match is a fact that can’t be disputed, the Englishman ending the first session on a 5-3 lead and although his Welsh opponent drew level at five apiece during the second one, O’Sullivan fought back by winning the next six frames with a marvelous series of breaks of 62, 110, 98, 94 and 113 to end it at 11-5.
Things didn’t seem to work out for Stevens during the third session either, even though at a point he succeeded to reduce the gap at four frames.
O’Sullivan started the last session by being 15-9 ahead, not even Stevens’ century break from the beginning of it (116) could stop him from reaching the final, before he replayed with a 135.
The final between Ali Carter and Ronnie O’Sullivan is being played on the “best of 35” frames, the first two sessions starting this Sunday from 2pm and 7pm respectively.
Ramona Dragomir
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