Ali Carter continued the chain of upsets at the ongoing 2020 Masters after seeing Joe Perry take out Ding Junhui who just won the UK Championship a month ago.
Mark Selby might have won three Masters title but he was no match for Ali Carter who seemed like he was headed for the win right from the very start of the game.
Carter started on the front foot, winning the first two frames on the bounce. However, he must have been aware that a 2-0 lead against the three-time world champion didn’t mean victory for him. Indeed, Selby fought back to take the following three breaks. The Englishman was helped by breaks of 74, 56 and 94 to swing the pendulum in his direction.
Carter, unwilling to let go of the game or be destabilized by that three frames run, went on a tidy run himself. With breaks of 82, 63 and 68, the 40-year-old secured his place in the last-eight of the tournament.
The world number 17 wasn’t supposed to be invited for the Masters which is to be played only by the top-16 in the elite world rankings. However, Ronnie O’Sullivan withdrew from the tournament, a decision that granted Carter the chance to be invited for the tournament.
The 40-year-old seems to be making good use of this opportunity as he ousted three-time champion, Mark Selby and would fancy his chances of going all the way and possibly winning the title.
World Snooker Tour chairman, Barry Hearn has described Ronnie’s decision to withdraw from the tournament a waste and a decision he might later come to see as a career mistake.
The 44-year-old thought that his spot in the tournament should be handed over to someone who was willing to give 110percent support instead.
Hearn iterated that he had no reason why the 2019 Masters runners-up would want out of the tournament.
“The Masters is a special place. It will miss Ronnie and Ronnie, in a reflective mood, will miss the Masters,” the WST chairman, Hearn said.
Hearn said the decision of the 36-time ranking event winner could be likened to one of those decisions we taken in life and later regret.
The five-time world champion would at least be delighted for now, that his replacement made it to the last-eight of the tournament.