Ali Carter criticises ‘morons’ in crowd after Masters final defeat to Ronnie O’Sullivan at Alexandra Palace

Ali Carter claims some of the crowd behaved like “morons” during his 10-7 defeat to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final of The Masters at Alexandra Palace.

Carter was not impressed with spectators who called out while he was preparing to take a shot, with the referee having to step in several times to calm things down.

“It’s hard enough to beat [O’Sullivan],” said Carter.

“But when you’ve got people shouting when you are on your shot and saying stupid things at important times because half of them haven’t got enough brains, it’s ridiculous.

“There are some morons in the crowd. It is just unbelievable really. Ronnie played very well, he missed a few at the end and the crowd got excited.

“When you play Ronnie, you have to play the crowd, you have to accept it. I did my best but it just wasn’t good enough.”

Carter has shown good form this season, reaching the final of the Wuhan Open and the last four of the Snooker Shoot Out, but he says his run at the Triple Crown event took him by surprise.

Although he was beaten, Carter managed to break a record previously held by O’Sullivan when he scored a ninth century of the tournament in the 13th frame of the final.

“Obviously I’m gutted I lost, it’s all about winning at the end of the day,” he said.

“But before I rocked up here I’d have taken the final so there’s a lot of good things to come for me. I’m heading in the right direction.

“It’s been a good week. Plenty of centuries and £100,000 in the bank – it’s not bad is it?”