Ronnie O’Sullivan v Ali Carter live stream | World Snooker Championship 2025 preview
O’Sullivan and Carter collide (Photo credit: Cody Froggatt/News Images/Alamy)
Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ali Carter will renew their bitter rivalry in a mouth-watering first round clash at the World Snooker Championship.
Undoubtedly the stand-out tie of the opening round at The Crucible sees seven-time World Champion O’Sullivan return to competitive action to face his Essex foe Carter.
O’Sullivan has ended his three-month self-imposed exile from professional competition to resume his quest for a record-breaking eighth world title.
After pulling out of several ranking events this season, as well as The Masters, speculation mounted over O’Sullivan’s involvement in the sport’s showpiece event, but the 49-year-old will maintain his ever-present record at The Crucible.
Having made his debut here as a 17-year-old back in 1993, The Rocket made the fastest professional maximum on record in 1997 and went on to claim his first world title four years later before adding a further six to equal Stephen Hendry’s tally.
However, personal turmoil has curtailed much of O’Sullivan’s 2024/25 season, with his last ranking event appearance coming in November when he lost out to Barry Hawkins in Round One of the UK Championship, before snapping his cue in frustration at the Championship League in January and pulling out of the tournament.
The 41-time ranking event winner has been practicing at his purpose-built facility in Riyadh in preparation for his highly-anticipated return, where he hopes to replicate his infamous 2013 triumph when he went on to win the world title after almost full season out of action.
In a remarkable twist of fate, O’Sullivan has been handed a showdown with Carter in a repeat of two previous World Championship finals – 2008 and 2012 – both won by The Rocket.
However, the most memorable meeting between the pair came in the Second Round here in 2018, when they brushed shoulders in the arena, leading O’Sullivan to call Carter “Mr angry”, but it was ‘The Captain’ who had the final word by sealing a 13-9 victory.
Bad blood surfaced between the two again following last year’s Masters final when O’Sullivan launched an extraordinary f-bomb rant towards his rival after sealing a record eighth title.
They have met just once since then, with O’Sullivan thrashing Carter 10-2 in the quarter-finals of the Tour Championship in Manchester 12 months ago.
Carter is making his 21st Crucible appearance, having come through the qualifiers by defeating Ian Burns 10-8 and He Guoqiang 10-5.
The world number 18 claimed the season’s first ranking title at the Championship League last July and reached back-to-back semi-finals at the Welsh Open and World Open in February.
The 45-year-old is bidding to register his first win at The Crucible since 2019, with his last three appearances having resulted in first round exits.
The match gets under way from 2.30pm BST on Tuesday for a maximum of nine frames, before resuming to a finish over the best of 19 from 2.30pm on Wednesday.
Either 12th seed Zhang Anda or qualifier Pang Junxu will await the winner in the Last 16 on Saturday.
How to watch Ronnie O’Sullivan v Ali Carter live stream
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