History repeated as super sub Ali Carter reaches 2025 Shanghai Masters final

World number 17 Carter wasn’t even meant to be in this year’s tournament having initially missed out on the cut by a single place. However, due to Mark Allen withdrawing from the prestigious £825,000 invitational event because of personal/family reasons, first reserve Carter was called-up to the 24-player field.

Super sub Carter is certainly making the most of his opportunity and is now one more win away from claiming the biggest title of his career, and the £210,000 top prize which would represent his richest single payday in the sport.

Down to the one-table set-up for the multi-session semi-finals in Shanghai, Selby took the opening frame of the best-of-19 contest between two former winners of this title with an 85 break. Efforts of 76 and 70 helped Carter level and then go in front before another 85 from Selby locked them up at 2-2 for the mid-session interval.

Selby took an eventful frame five that Carter let slip after going in-off the final pink, although ‘The Captain’ quickly got over that disappointment as he fashioned a run of 102 in frame six for 3-3.

Back in front went Selby (80 break, frame seven), but Carter won the final two frames of the afternoon session for a narrow 5-4 advantage.

On resumption a few hours later, the pendulum swung again as Selby came out the blocks fast with breaks of 108 - his 899th century in professional competition - and 81 to take a 6-5 lead.

Carter crafted a 129 in frame 12 to restore parity at 6-6, but contributions of 91 and 62 aided Selby in securing frames either side of the final mid-session interval to go 8-6 up and in the driving seat. It was the first time in the entire match that there was more than a frame separating the two cueists.

Carter, though, for the third consecutive match would play the role of the comeback kid, stringing together four successive frames along with breaks of 66, 83, 62 and 79 for another rallying victory in the Far East this week. In the final three frames, Selby wasn’t allowed to score a single point.

On Wednesday in the last 16 against Mark Williams, Carter trailed 5-2 before launching a remarkable unanswered scoring streak of 400 points for a 6-5 win.

The next day, Carter pieced together another four-frame sequence from 5-2 down - this time against Xiao Guodong.

And on Friday, the 46-year-old Englishman completed three comebacks in as many days to book his spot in the title match where he will play either Kyren Wilson or reigning World Champion Zhao Xintong.

Carter won this title in 2010 when he denied Jamie Burnett 10-7 in the final; back when the tournament was a world ranking event.

Only two players have won this crown on multiple occasions - Ding Junhui (2013, 2016) and Ronnie O'Sullivan (2009, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023).

Snooker history is repeating itself this week. In 2020, Carter missed out on qualifying for the Masters at the Alexandra Palace in London, but got into the event when O’Sullivan surprisingly elected not to enter the Triple Crown spectacular.

In the capital city, Carter went all the way to the final, and was within two frames of lifting the trophy before losing 10-8 to Stuart Bingham.

Later in the same year - during the times of lockdown snooker because of Covid conditions - Stephen Maguire was ninth on the seasonal list but got into the eight-player Tour Championship when Ding Junhui withdrew because of travel complications linked to the pandemic.

The replacement saw off Neil Robertson, Judd Trump, and then Mark Allen in the final to win the title and collect a total of £260,000 when other bonus prizes were added.

For Selby, it is a third year in-a-row that he has lost in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters, and on each of those occasions he led in the final session. However, the four-time World Champion can look back at a whitewash win over Shaun Murphy in the last 16, and dethroning reigning champion and world number one Judd Trump in the quarter-finals.

Please visit our 2025 Shanghai Masters tournament information page here for the draw, results, format, match schedule, how to watch details and prize money payouts.