Ali Carter and Ronnie O’Sullivan have had some compelling and feisty encounters over the years, but used to be perfectly friendly 30 years ago, before things turned sour.
The pair practised together as youngsters in Essex but would go on to have controversial clashes, particularly at the World Championship and Masters.
Their shoulder barge during a 2018 Crucible meeting was extremely spicy, by snooker’s standards, while their 2024 Masters final was ill-tempered and the post-match press conferences were far from friendly.
Carter says the animosity, on his side, stemmed from getting on well in the practice room, but not experiencing the same treatment from the Rocket when they got to tournaments.
Speaking on the Talking Snooker podcast, Carter said: ‘Me and Ronnie, we used to practise together, as a 17-year-old at Witham Snooker Bowl. We played every single day.
‘That was what led up to winning the Benson & Hedges Championship in 1999. That was a big tournament then and if it wasn’t for him getting me prepped up, I probably would never have won that tournament.
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‘So, after spending a lot of time with Ronnie, and he probably knew at the time how good I was, I just felt that when we went to tournaments, he wasn’t really the same towards me.
‘Looking back, I probably took it personally. I think he’s like that with everyone, it wasn’t just me. But I’m not everyone, am I? I can only speak from my own perspective. So, I just thought, well, if he can’t be bothered to talk to me, then I can’t be bothered to talk to him. That’s fine. We both know where we stand then.’
Plenty of time went by before the briefly physical clash in Sheffield in 2018, but Carter says it was what happened after the shoulder barge incident that made him feel relations had improved, but then got significantly worse again.
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‘Ronnie is a master of table-craft, really owning and dominating the arena. On that given day, I thought, no, I’m not having this, I’m not going to be bullied,’ Carter said of the memorable 2018 contest.
‘I managed to win that match. Afterwards he came up to me. We had a couple of words afterwards. He said, “Oh, good luck.”
‘Anyway, then we were at the Novotel in York, and he was with Damien Hirst and all his cronies, and I was having breakfast. Ronnie came over to me, he said, “Listen, I’m really sorry about what happened in Sheffield.” I said, “Mate, it’s all heat of the moment stuff. The temperature’s running high. You want to win, I want to win. It’s no problem.”
‘Then lockdown happened and all the tournaments were in Milton Keynes, so I played Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-finals of the [2020] Northern Ireland Open at Milton Keynes.
‘I’d done an interview with Alan McManus before and he said, “It’s always a needle match between you and Ronnie.” I said, “No, not at all. He came up to me in the Novotel in York and he apologised and I apologised. It’s all water under the bridge.”
‘So, anyway, he beat me, then the next tournament, I’ve come out of the tournament office. He must have seen my interview and he’s gone, “I never apologised to you. That was your fault.”
‘I said, “What? So I just made it up then, did I? That you come up to me in York and apologised?” He went, “Yeah, you did,” and then had a little laugh, and that was that.
‘You can’t comprehend what’s just happened. Is he getting me at it or what? And I just thought, right, okay, he wants to say that, whatever. The only way I can take myself out of that situation is just have nothing to do with it anymore, not speak to him. It’s pointless.’
O’Sullivan has spoken about the conversation in York before, saying that he did not intend to apologise, but wanted to move on from animosity.
‘I didn’t apologise to Ali,’ he said. ‘I just said, “Look, let’s move on, let’s not hold any grudges over it.”
‘I still feel that I was in the right on both occasions, so that apology that they say that I said was definitely not an apology.’
After the very tetchy 2024 Masters final, the pair met again in the 2025 World Championship and there appeared to be little ill will in that match, which O’Sullivan won without controversy.
They played again at the German Masters this year and Carter says they spoke on friendly enough terms before a win for the Captain in Berlin.
‘I had a little chat with him, actually, at the German Masters when we was walking out to play last year,’ he said.
‘I just thought, “Oh, I’ll speak to him, I’m bigger than this.” We had a bit of chat and look, we’re snooker people, aren’t we? We’re competitors.’
Carter also revealed an interesting twist to his relationship with the Rocket, as he gets on very well with his dad, Ronnie O’Sullivan Sr.
During Carter’s treatment for cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 2013 and ’14, recovering both times, O’Sullivan Sr reached out to offer help.
‘I get on so well with his dad, spent a lot of time with his dad in Sheffield this year, had a lot of coffees with him,’ said the Captain.
‘His dad, when I was going through my cancer treatment, this number kept ringing me, so obviously I thought I’d better answer this, might be a consultant. He went: “Ali, it’s Ronnie O’Sullivan Senior. This is unconditional, anything you want, anything I can do for you, consider it done, you’re an Essex boy, and I just want you to know, anything I can do.”
‘I’d never met the guy! I went: “Thanks, Ron, that’s really nice of you to say.” So there you go.’
Carter does feel that his clashes with the Rocket have caused him to receive abuse from O’Sullivan’s fans over the years, leaving him as something of a ‘marmite’ figure in snooker.
‘I think it’s the Ronnie fans, and not necessarily snooker fans, that generally want to put the knife in,’ he said.
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Ali Carter reveals how Ronnie O’Sullivan feud began and got more bitter
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