Shanghai Masters - the last day (the grand final)

"Who`s your Captain? " :))

A crazy week, filled with tension, emotions, remarkable comebacks and not the best playing conditions, has ended. Shanghai Masters 2010 has found its winner in the person of Ali Carter - "The Captain" from Essex.:)


Yesterday the referee Jan Verhaas - the "flying Dutchman" who’s also very found of cycling was in charge of watching the boys - Jamie Burnett and Ali Carter, playing nice snooker :)).
The first session wasn’t the best ever, since the highest break was 71 (Ali was responsible for that), but from the very first beginning one thing was clear: this will be a very tight match. And it was, for the players were one frame apart most of the time, the first session ending with a 5-4 scoreline, in favor of Carter.
The second one started the same way and it was pretty cool to see that if a player dared to make a gap bigger than one frame, the other player would fight back immediately and regain his position. But this situation wasn’t going to last forever, so from 8-7 Ali won every single frame, ending the match 10-7 in his favor.

Burnett:"So, how did you do it?" Ali:"Well, I`ve started with the red..."

Maybe it wasn’t an exceptional final, but let’s face it! 17 frames is not an easy thing to do, even in two sessions and moreover, after a week of battle, I think the boys did a pretty good job, don’t you think? Sure I would’ve loved to see amazing breaks too, but great snooker isn’t just about that, as you all know. ;)


110sport.tv shared Ali`s first thoughts on the victory:


"I am delighted to have one another title. It has been a few years since I won the Welsh Open so I am delighted to have managed to have added to my collection.", said Ali.


"It was a really tough match and the conditions were difficult. There was a lot of dampness in the air and that had an effect on the way the table played."


"Jamie has done fantastically well this week to get to the final and he showed that he is a real fighter today.", added Carter.


But it seems like the little guy had a very ugly surprise the morning before the big final. After a not such a good night sleep, he woke up with a dead arm; but it was "so dead" that he couldn’t feel anything. Well, that must have been a very unpleasant way for starting a day of battle, but the blond guy managed "to enter the zone" as Jimmy White would say and focus on the match. :)

Ali Carter - Shanghai Masters 2010 Champion

On the other hand, Jamie Burnett had an amazing performance in the Chinese metropolis. He defeated Tian Pengfei (5-2), Andrew Higginson (5-0), Mark Davis (5-4) and Jamie Cope (6-1). The Scot with "the iron nerves" succeeded to overcome some pretty unfriendly scoreline this tournament, but in the final the last three frames weren’t his best friends.


Congratulations to Ali Carter for his second important title and also congratulations to Jamie Burnett, who wasn’t so far from winning the Shanghai Masters 2010 title! :)


P.S. 1: I would really want to thank all my FaceBook and Twitter friends who kept me updated with what was going on in the final! :)
P.S. 2: Here you have the latest scores.


And today song is for Ali "The Captain" Carter! :)