O'Sullivan won the first round of the 2025 World Snooker Championships, and Carter was convinced after the game

On the 23rd local time, the 2025 World Snooker Championship ended a key battle in the first round. O'Sullivan, the comeback king of the generation, defeated "Captain" Carter 10:4, won this key battle at the same time, and entered the round of 16 strongly. In the middle of the game, the two sides were in a stalemate, but the "Rocket" won 5 games in a row to advance, and even Carter, who had been at odds with him in the past, said after the game: "He is the most successful snooker player in history, I drew him in the first round, and that's it." The two used to be at odds, but now they seem to have a grudge.

O'Sullivan came back in the first round to fight the "enemy" Carter

O'Sullivan has been away from the field since he withdrew from the Snooker Champions League and the Masters in January this year, and the situation continues to attract attention from the outside world, he said that his form has declined with age in recent years, so he has lost his self-confidence, but with the encouragement of player Barry Hawkins and psychiatrist Dr. Steve Peters, he decided to return to play in this World Championship.

The draw table shows that he drew the "enemy" Carter in the first round, and the two had a public quarrel after the final of the Masters at the beginning of last year, and in the top 16 of the 2018 World Championships, O'Sullivan bumped shoulder-to-shoulder with Carter who came out on the way back to his seat after batting, which became a classic discord in the snooker world in recent years.

O'Sullivan cooled down the fire before the game, saying that he regretted his speech at the press conference last year, and the atmosphere eased, and the game did not evolve into a grudge war like the outside world, but in the first game, Carter did not keep his hand on O'Sullivan, who had been absent from the battle for a long time, and won 88:22.

In the second stage, the rocket played the "lightning five whips" to advance

The first round of the World Championships adopts a best-of-19 system of 19 rounds, and the tournament is divided into two days. After O'Sullivan stood firm, he won 3 games in a row, and hit a single shot to break 100, and the two sides won and lost each other, and the "rocket" completed the first stage of the event with a slight advantage of 5:4. However, in the second stage, O'Sullivan quickly entered the state, won 5 games in a row and hit 3 times to break 100, defeated Carter 10:4 to advance, and will face Chinese player Pang Junxu in the round of 16.

Carter said after the game that he was convinced of the loss: "I still have a good chance to win when the score is 5:4, but then O'Sullivan started to exert strength, which made me a little embarrassed. I'm playing against the best player of all time, so it's not going to be easy to deal with. ”

He added that ending the season in this way was not what he wanted: "But O'Sullivan is probably the most difficult opponent to deal with in the first round, and no one wants to play against him, for obvious reasons, because he is the most successful player in history, I drew him in the first round, and that's it." He could have been on a break for 10 years but decided to come here and he's got a lot of talent, so everybody likes to watch him play – he's doing really well. ”

1991 world champion John Parrott praised the comeback O'Sullivan's performance

1991 World ChampionJohn ParrottComparing football's Lionel Messi and golfer's Tiger Woods to O'Sullivan: "We all use 'genius' to describe athletes like them, and he (O'Sullivan) is too. There should be a sign at the entrance to the stadium that says, "Please be quiet, the genius is playing." ”