Ali Carter beats Jamie Burnett in Shanghai

Ali Carter is up to second place in the world snooker rankings following his victory over Scotland's Jamie Burnett in the Roewe Shanghai Masters yesterday.

The player, nicknamed 'The Captain' beat Burnett 10-7 in the final to win the second ranking title of his career, after the 2009 Welsh Open. He is now only behind Wishaw's John Higgins, who is banned until November, in the rankings.

"I just want to win as many titles as I can in my career. If you keep getting to the business end of tournaments then you will have chances to win them and that's what I've done.

"It wasn't the best match, but those are the ones where winning is what matters," said 31-year-old Carter of Tiptree in Essex. Burnett had never previously reached the semi-finals of a ranking event, and though he finished as runner-up he jumps to 29th place on the list, having started the season 37th.

The losing semi-finalists in Shanghai were Mark Selby and Jamie Cope, who now stand ninth and 13th respectively. As one of the innovations on the World Snooker Tour this season, the rankings now work as a two-year rolling list, so the points for the 2008 Northern Ireland Trophy and Roewe Shanghai Masters have been removed.

After the 12BET.com World Open in Glasgow, which runs from 18 to 26 September, the points for the 2008 Grand Prix will be removed, then after the EPTC event in Belgium from 30 September to 3 October, the seeding list will be updated.

The top 16 players at that cut-off point will qualify automatically for the televised stages of the UK Championship in Telford in December and the prestigious Masters at Wembley Arena in January.

The contest was nip and tuck with Burnett fighting back to 8-7 behind, but a 64 in the 16th frame gave Carter the impetus to snatch the 60,000 prize.