Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ali Carter bitter feud takes yet another twist as fans spot off-camera gesture
Ronnie O’Sullivan’s bitter feud with Ali Carter has taken yet another turn after fans spotted an eyebrow-raising gesture between the two at the World Championship.
O’Sullivan has returned to snooker for the first time since January, with the legend kicking off his campaign against Carter, who he said needs to ‘sort his f***ing life out’ after beating him in the 2024 Masters final.
The seven-time world champion’s 33rd consecutive Crucible appearance had been in doubt, having not competed since snapping his cue in anger at the Champions League in January after a 3-2 defeat by Robert Milkins.
He admitted in the build-up that he would have to overcome ‘stage fright’ to go toe-to-toe with Carter after struggling with his mental health.
O’Sullivan told Mail Sport recently that he was ‘burned out’ after ‘four years of struggling’ and would make a last-minute call on whether to play in Sheffield.
But he did indeed play, and potential tension appeared to have been squashed when the two stars were seen shaking hands.
Ronnie O’Sullivan’s bitter feud with Ali Carter took another turn on Tuesday afternoon
The duo were seen shaking hands after O’Sullivan offered his rival his hand table-side
O’Sullivan was returning to snooker for the first time since snapping his cue in January
In footage shared to social media, O’Sullivan was seen offering his hand to Carter as the duo sat at the side of the table ahead of their match.
Carter accepted, and they also appeared to engage in conversation.
In his only appearance this year, O’Sullivan lost four of his five matches in the Championship League and snapped his cue before pulling out of his final game.
He then dropped out of the Masters, German Masters, Welsh Open and the World Grand Prix, apologising to spectators and citing a mixture of exhaustion and medical reasons. Such is his disappointment with his form, he has been unable to practice.
O’Sullivan has been a regular fixture at the Crucible since turning professional in 1992 and admitted he had often found his successes a breeze.
Now, however, he has attributed his advancing age to his struggle to fully recover from tournaments.
‘I regret it, but that wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, I’d had four years of just really struggling and I just couldn’t take it anymore,’ O’Sullivan told Mail Sport of his cue snap.
‘It wasn’t the losing, it was the playing really, really badly. Four years of bad spells is a long time, so it burnt me out. It ground me down. It’s been torturous. I got to the point, especially at the start of the season, when I was getting scared to go near the practice table or getting scared to get my cue out of my case.
Last year he claimed Carter needs to ‘sort his f****** life out’ after their Masters final
He later apologised for snapping his cue, with he and Carter seemingly engaging in conversation on Tuesday
‘I tried playing left-handed for a whole month in August. Then I tried to change my bridge and I was wearing plasters on my fingers. So I have tried a lot of things but I’ve hit a dead end, which is why I needed to take time out.
‘It’s not a mental thing. It’s more of a physical thing. It’s really hard to explain. Watching my game on TV, I could see what was wrong, but I just didn’t know how to fix it. In the end, I couldn’t even watch myself play because I just hated it.
‘I believe that goes back six years to when I started changing my technique to try to find that extra five per cent of consistency. But I’ve totally made my game worse.’
