Ronnie O’Sullivan speaks out on Ali Carter handshake at World Snooker Championship

Ronnie O’Sullivan offered a handshake to Ali Carter before their match at the Crucible (Getty)

Ronnie O’Sullivan has played down his feud with Ali Carter following their handshake at the World Snooker Championship this week.

The build up to their first-round match centered around the tetchy relationship between the pair following their clashes at the Crucible and in their Masters final last year.

However, O’Sullivan made the first offer of a truce before their opening frame on Tuesday as he shook Carter’s hand while they were both sat in their seats.

O’Sullivan also went a step further after his 10-4 win against Carter by admitting that he regretted his explosive rant towards his rival in January last year in which he told him to ‘sort his life out’.

When asked about his decision to shake Carter’s hand before their first-round match, O’Sullivan told TNT Sports: ‘Me and Ali are fine.

‘You know, I was probably going through a bad time myself at the time, he was probably going through a bit of a bad time.

Ronnie O’Sullivan went on to seal a 10-4 victory against Ali Carter (Action Images via Reuters)

‘You just sort of say things, when you say it you think, ‘why did I say that?’, you think, ‘ugh, really?’, do you know what I mean? No, it’s just heat of the moment stuff.

‘I mean, I practiced with Ali when he was a kid like 13, 14, I thought, ‘this kid is going to be special’.

‘I spent a lot of time playing him, picking balls out for him, yeah, he’s a good lad.’

During commentary for the BBC, seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry said of the handshake between the pair: ‘They actually shook hands at the chair, not the normal fist bump that Ronnie gives.

‘It was actually quite a warm handshake, and that’s good to see.’

Speaking about his defeat to O’Sulivan, Carter said: ‘I think I was always in it at 5-4 but as you saw there Ronnie got going and I just seemed to keep finding myself in awkward positions, got in the balls and split the back of the pack a couple of times and I missed a couple of blacks off the cushion where I couldn’t really get on anything.

‘It just went from bad to worse, it begins to get a little bit embarrassing out there but I’m playing the greatest player of all time, it’s not easy, but I’ll be back next year.

‘It’s not the end I wanted here but arguably Ronnie is the hardest draw in the first round, he’s probably the one everyone doesn’t want to play for obvious reasons because he’s the most successful player of all time. I drew him out of the hat and that’s more how it is.’

When asked about the spirit in which his match against O’Sullivan was played, Carter said: ‘Yeah, of course. We’re sportsmen – we both want to win – and he was the better player today.’

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