Carter downs Burnett to win Shanghai title
Eurosport - Sun, 12 Sep 17:08:00 2010
World number four Ali Carter won the Shanghai Masters after defeating wildcard entry Jamie Burnett 10-7 in the final.
The Essex man will now move up two places in the world rankings but he had to be at his tactical best to see off the challenge posed by his Scottish opponent.
With hardly any high breaks, the match became a war of attrition with Carter just edging it.
Burnett showed some composure under pressure that belied his ranking, but in truth Carter's quality just outshone him as the Scot made a few too many mistakes.
Nonetheless, his ability to keep coming back when Carter seemed set to run away with with match was commendable, with the seven frames to his name a testament to how he handled the occasion.
Carter took the opening frame, but Burnett quickly levelled the scores in the second with a scrappy display, setting the tone for his afternoon performance.
A superb pot on the blue with the white tight on the top cushion paved the way for Burnett to edge in front in the third, but Carter hit back with some aggressive play to make it 3-2.
A gutsy sixth frame from Burnett saw parity restored, and he continued his good form in the following frame to make it 4-3.
But misses started to flood into his game with alarming regularity, which Carter capitalised on, making it 5-4 to the Englishman at the end of the afternoon session.
Both players stepped it up in the evening session, but what proved decisive was Carter’s consistency in keeping his nose in front.
He took the tenth frame - which included a series of fouls from Burnett - to make it 6-4, before his underdog opponent showed his mental strength by hanging on to take an incredible eleventh frame.
The scores were level at 58 apiece when a high-quality exchange of safety shots ensued, with Burnett eventually crumbling with two fouls.
But astonishingly, the Scot hit back and managed to pot both the pink and black, crucially making it 6-5 to Carter.
Carter responded impressively, quickly rattling off a break of 72 to make it 7-5, but once again Burnett managed to reduce the deficit to one with some canny play.
The scenario repeated itself as both players took a frame each, making it 8-7, but unfortunately for Burnett, that proved to be the last time he registered on the scoreboard.
Carter made a cracking break of 63 in the penultimate frame, which eventually saw him take it, before calmly and slowly finishing his opponent off with precision, winning the match 10-7 along with title.




Comment 1 - 5 of 5
well done, second title in the year
Wohoooooo! Ali, you were on fire! Great job, mate! Congrats! :)
Well played Ali, now keep it up...
Well Done Ali put tollesbury on the map xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You were great Ali! :)
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