Ali Carter ends Neil Robertson hopes as Marco Fu upsets Mark Selby at Players Championship

ByEurosport

Updated 10/03/2017 at 06:51 GMT

Ali Carter set up a semi-final with Judd Trump at the Players Championship courtesy of a 5-3 win over Neil Robertson at Venue Cymru in Llandudno.

Ali Carter

Image credit: Eurosport

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In the evening match, world champion and world number one Mark Selby suffered a 5-2 loss to Scottish Open champion Marco Fu.

Selby opened with 86 with Fu levelling at 1-1 boosted by a 54. Selby moved 2-1 clear only for Fu to restore parity at 2-2.

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The Hong Kong player assumed control from that stage onwards as runs of 85 and 68 helped Fu to progress to a semi-final on Saturday evening with Ding Junhui or Anthony Hamilton.

“I’m very happy with the result," said Fu. "I wasn’t that pleased with how I played, but it is always good to beat the world number one.”

“The longer frames are the important ones. All top players can win in one visit. It can be the tight frames that determine who’s going to be the winner. Tonight I was able to do a little bit better than Mark.”

Robertson managed to recover from watching Carter compile 63 in the opening frame to escape from a snooker only for Carter to restore parity at 1-1 with a run of 94.

The next two frames were split as the pair reached the mid-session interval at 2-2 before Australia's Robertson dominated the fifth frame to move 3-2 clear.

He would only score 42 points in the next three frames as Carter levelled before an 84 in the seventh frame saw him move 4-3 ahead.

In a tight finish, Carter maintained his composure to edge the penultimate frame on the colours. He will face Trump over the best of 11 frames in Friday's night's semi-final.

The 16-man tournament, with a £125,000 first prize, is the penultimate event before the seeding cut-off falls for the World Championship which begins on April 15 in Sheffield.