Ali Carter

Name: Ali Carter

DOB: 25th July 1979

Nationality: English

Turned Pro: 1996

Highest Ranking: #2 (2010)

Highest Break: 147 (2008 World Championship)

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

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 Championship final and claiming his first ranking event title at the 2009 Welsh Open.

Other highlights include victory in the 2010 Shanghai Masters as well as a magical 147 break against Peter Ebdon at the Crucible back in 2008 on the way to that world 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.

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 could not quite break into the top 16 of the rankings until 2006. His cause was also not helped by the onset of Crohn’s disease, a condition that he was diagnosed with in 2003 and that appeared to take Ali a while to get on top of.

Ali at the 2001 World Championship

Top 16

With that apparently under control by 2007 however, his excellent run in Malta (where he eventually lost to Shaun Murphy), did give him a realistic chance to retain his top 16 status for a second successive season. 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 one with a comprehensive 10-4 victory over Andy Hicks which set up an intriguing match with Stephen 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 and Ali produced a fantastic display to win 13-6 and move into the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time in his career.

His next opponent would be Leicester’s Mark Selby and for long periods it looked as though it would be Ali would would prevail as he led 11-8 and 12-11. Unfortunately however he was to let Selby back into it and ultimately lost the match 13-12.

Ali at the 2008 Masters

World final and 147

Despite that disappointment, Ali was to enjoy 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 the Captain really made a name for himself.

Not only did Carter make his first career 147 during the tournament, but he played excellent snooker throughout the event en route to his first World Championship final, indeed his first final in any ranking event. In it he faced 2001 and 2004 winner Ronnie O’Sullivan and although Ali tried his best, O’Sullivan was just too strong for him. Nevertheless the tournament was a great success for Ali and lifted him to a career high seventh in the latest rankings.

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

Having had such a strong finish to the previous season, Ali started the 2008/9 campaign feeling as confident in his own game than ever before, something clearly reflected 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 that week and despite trailing 3-0 early on, Ali was eventually able to come through 6-5 to reach his second ranking final.

Standing between him and his first title 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 thus headed into the evening trailing by two frames.

Thereafter however Ali looked to be 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 had 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 to be much improved as Ali rediscovered the consistency that followed his World Championship 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 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.

2010/11

Ali made a slow start to the 2010/11 season in the new PTC as he failed to move beyond the last 32 in the first five events played. When the Shanghai Masters came around though, the Captain produced some fine form to defeat shock finalist Jamie Burnett and capture the second ranking event title of his career.

Like many of the top players in the tournament Ali struggled early on as he edged out Dave Harold and Stuart Bingham to reach the last eight before slipping 4-1 down against a resurgent Matthew Stevens and looking like he would be heading home from the tournament.

What followed however was a superb recovery, sparked by a break of 103 which saw Ali win 5-4 on the black to book a spot in the semi-finals where he would face tournament favourite Mark Selby. Trailing 2-0 early on it looked as though it could be a tough afternoon for Ali but again the Captain was able to respond, a superb run of form which saw him take six consecutive frames with breaks of 129, 99 and 69 to win through to his second final of 2010.

There he faced Scotland’s Jamie Burnett, through to the first ranking event final of his 18-year career and though he put in a great effort and did not appear overawed by the occasion, Ali was able to come through to take a 10-7 win and in doing so move up to second place in the rankings.

Following that success Ali struggled for results during the coming months but was to return to form at the Newport Centre once again as he made it through to the semi-final stages of the Welsh Open for the third year in succession. As was the case in 2010 however, Ali had no answer for John Higgins who was to go on and successfully defend his title.

A quarter-final appearance in China before he rounded off his campaign with a last 16 defeat to Graeme Dott at the Crucible in one of the most entertaining matches of the 2011 World Championship. As Graeme later admitted, Ali was probably the better player of the two during the match but it was to be the Scot who would prevail during several of the closer frames to eventually come through 13-11.

2011/12

Ali was to experience a difficult start to the 2011/12 season as he lost his opening matches during the Australian Goldfields Open and Shanghai Masters tournaments to Marcus Campbell and Mark King respectively, while losing at the last 16 stage of the UK Championship to Antrim’s Mark Allen. Following this result Ali was moved to state his intent to retire at the end of the season on Twitter, though he later backtracked on this comment to some extent:

“Thanks for all your messages. Maybe I should have kept my thoughts to myself! They were obviosuly in the heat of the moment but I also genuinely have some serious thinking to do about my future at the end of this season and what direction I want to head.”

Ali at PTC2 2011

During the PTC events meanwhile Ali also struggled to make an impression, his best results being last 16 runs at PTC2 and PTC7, both in Gloucester. As a result Ali was to see his ranking drop as low as tenth at the end of 2011 with a significant number of points still to be removed between then and the climax of the season.

Tournament Victories:

Ranking Event wins (2)

Non-Ranking Event wins (2)