Ali Carter « Pro Snooker Blog

carter1 Name: Ali Carter

DOB: July 25th 1979

Nationality: English

Turned Pro: 1996

Highest Ranking: #4 (2010/11)

Current Ranking: #4

Highest Break: 147 (2008 World Championship)

Career Highlights: 2009 Welsh Open Champion, 2008 World Finalist, 2010 Welsh Open Finalist, 2008 Huangshan Cup Champion

Website: http://www.alicarter.com/

In short

Tiptree’s finest, Ali Carter has always been a talented player but it is only in recent seasons that he has started to show his real potential, notably making the 2008 World final and claiming his first ranking event title at the 2009 Welsh Open.

A good all-round player, Carter is more than capable of knocking in century breaks when given half a chance and is just as good in the safety department. In the past though one weakness levelled against him has been his temperament, having lost a number of matches from a strong position. Examples of this include his 2007 UK match against Barry Hawkins that he lost from a leading position of 8-3, as well as his 2007 World Championship match against Mark Selby.

Despite this however he performed at the Crucible in 2008, winning several close matches and making that spectacular 147 under pressure against Peter Ebdon. Having also come through two deciding frame finishes on the way to his first ranking event title at the 2009 Welsh Open, it is fair to say that he has now answered his critics. Ali is now sure to continue his rise up the rankings and if he can keep the form he has shown recently, will be one of the leading contenders for every tournament that he enters…

Ali’s introduction at the 2008 World Championship final

Early career

Turning professional aged just 17 in 1996, the start of Ali’s career on the main tour was to be relatively modest one in comparison to the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins. In 1999 however Carter was to announce himself as a player of some potential by making his first ranking event semi-final at the Grand Prix, beating the reigning world champion Stephen Hendry on the way.

Although he ultimately was to come up short against the much more experienced Higgins, he did not let this get him down and went on to win the Benson and Hedges Championship shortly afterwards. This earned him a place at the prestigious Masters tournament at Wembley in January 2000 where he managed to secure a memorable 6-5 win over Steve Davis.

A tremendous break of 141 during his 2009 Welsh Open semi-final…

With performances such as these helping him to become the WPBSA Newcomer of the Year for 2000, it appeared to be only a matter of time before Ali was regularly competing at the top of the game. It was however to be another eight years from that semi-final breakthrough at the Grand Prix until he would make his second at the 2007 Malta Cup.

That is not to say that the intervening years were poor, he did make a number of tournament quarter-finals but unfortunately he could not quite break into the top 16 of the rankings for a number of years. His cause was also not helped by the onset of Crohn’s disease, a condition that he was diagnosed with in 2003 that appeared to take Ali a while to get on top of.

Top 16

With that under control by 2007 however, his excellent run in Malta (where he eventually lost to Shaun Murphy), did present Ali with the opportunity to break into the top 16 for the first time. To do so he needed to have a good tournament at the 2007 World Championship and hope that other results went his way.

He started well in round 1 with a comprehensive 10-4 victory over Andy Hicks which earned him an intriguing match with Hendry who had struggled in his first match against Dave Gilbert. Having changed his cue just weeks before the tournament Hendry was clearly not at his best but Carter produced a fantastic display to move win 13-6 and earn his first quarter-final match at the Crucible.

Here he was to face Leicester’s Mark Selby in what again promised to be a close match. Unfortunately for Carter despite having led the match 11-8 and 12-11, he let Selby back into it and ultimately lost 13-12. In making it this far however he had done enough to move into the top 16 of the rankings and would not longer have to qualify for the final stages of the big events.

World final and 147

This being the case, Carter was to have a consistent season in 2007/8, again reaching a few quarter-finals but being unable to take that extra step to go further. That was until the World Championship at the Crucible however where Carter really made a name for himself.

Part one of Ali’s magical maximum at the Crucible in 2008

Not only did Carter make his first career 147 during the tournament, but he played consistently excellent snooker and went on to reach the final, his first in a ranking event. In it he faced 2001 and 2004 winner Ronnie O’Sullivan and although Ali gave it a good go, O’Sullivan was just too good for him. Nevertheless the tournament was a great success for Ali and lifted him to a career high seventh in the latest rankings.

And here he completes it in fine style!

Just like in 1999 after his Grand Prix run, Carter was not to let his defeat get him down, winning the invitational Huangshan Cup just days later by defeating Marco Fu in the final.

2008/9 – Title at Last

swailcarter1

Having had such a strong end to the previous season, Ali started the 2008/9 campaign feeling as confident in his own game than ever before and it certainly showed in his results.

He opened up by reaching the semi-finals of the season opening Northern Ireland Trophy where he lost out to O’Sullivan again, before following it up with further semi-finals at the Grand Prix and the UK Championship where he also suffered narrow losses to Ryan Day and Marco Fu respectively.

Following a quarter-final defeat in the Masters, again to O’Sullivan, things were finally to come together at the Newport Centre in Wales as victories over Jimmy White, Graeme Dott and Shaun Murphy took him to his fourth semi-final of the season. There he met Anthony Hamilton who had been enjoying something of a renaissance and despite going 3-0 down and being forced into a deciding frame, he managed to come through and reach his second ever final.

Standing between him and his first final was the popular Joe Swail, himself gunning for his first ranking event title in 18 years of trying. For a while things looked worrying for Ali as he failed to fire during the afternoon session and going into the evening trailing by two frames. In the evening however he looked a different player and knocked in two centuries on the way to an outstanding 9-5 victory.

He finished off the season with a couple of disappointing performances, notably at the World Championship when he lost at the last 16 stage to Neil Robertson, but nevertheless he has still done enough to move up to a career high of 5th in the rankings.

2009/10

Ali’s post-title slump continued at the start of 2009/10 as he failed to progress beyond the last 16 of the first two tournaments. His Grand Prix defeat to Robert Milkins in fact proved to be the last match that he played with his previous cue and the enforced change brought him some luck in Telford at the UK Championship as wins over Rory McLeod and Stephen Lee took him to the last eight. This was as far as he could go however as he was stopped there by eventual champion Ding Junhui.

The second half of the season was however to be much improved as Ali rediscovered the consistency that followed his World final appearance of 2008. His return to form began at what must be one of his favourite venues, the Newport Centre as he launched a terrific defence of his Welsh Open title to once again reach the final, only to lose out to provisional world number one John Higgins by a 9-4 scoreline.

Next up was Beijing a venue that traditionally had not been a happy hunting ground for Ali but this time it was to be different as he advanced to the semi-finals before again losing out to the eventual champion, a returning to form Mark Williams.

Finally the World Championship would again see Ali reach the last four, victories over Jamie Cope, Joe Perry and Shaun Murphy enough to book him a tie with Neil Robertson, one of his victims just weeks previously in China. This time however it was to be Neil’s match, the Australian winning 17-12 on the way to his maiden world triumph.

All in all though it was another positive season for Ali and enough to move him up one place to fourth in the end of season rankings, a new career high.