With a 5-3 lead after the first session and an even bigger lead when play began, Carter appeared headed for his maiden Triple Crown victory.
Before Carter broke O’Sullivan’s record in the 13th frame by making his ninth century of the event, O’Sullivan rattled off three straight frames to get back on level terms.
To win back-to-back Triple Crown events for the first time in his career, O’Sullivan mercilessly punished each error, allowing Carter to earn just 51 points in the final four frames.
“To be honest with you, I have no idea how I won this tournament,” O’Sullivan said. “I just delved deeply.
“I’ve tried to play a little more freely, but tonight I just felt like I needed to keep Ali [Carter] honest because he would need to remove me from the game if he wanted to win.”
“At the end, all I wanted to do was check if he had it. Ali let me off the hook a couple of times tonight, but he didn’t play well tonight. He performed better this afternoon.
“He was aggressive today but tonight he didn’t take on some of the balls I thought he might have and gave me a little bit of breathing space.”
Carter expressed his disappointment, saying, “At the end of the day, it’s all about winning, but before I came here last week, I would have won, so I have a lot of good things ahead of me.”
“I’m moving in the correct way. In the end, Ronnie did a great job playing there. Despite my best efforts, it wasn’t very good.
