Tour Championship: Ronnie O'Sullivan through to semi-finals with dismantling of fierce rival Ali Carter
Updated 03/04/2024 at 19:21 GMT
Ronnie O'Sullivan delivered an exceptional first-half display in his Tour Championship quarter-final grudge match with Ali Carter, going six frames clear of his arch-rival. Breaks of 92, 87 and 81 from O’Sullivan put him in the driving seat at the Manchester Central venue, and he continued his hot streak of form into the evening session, claiming three further frames to see himself safely through.
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Ronnie O’Sullivan served up a 10-2 thrashing of Ali Carter in the quarter-finals of the Tour Championship.
O'Sullivan started his last eight encounter relentlessly, as he took a six-frame lead in the opening session, before finishing off the final four frames in the evening session in Manchester.
The pair locked horns again on Wednesday following a fiery exchange after the Masters final in January, which led to past grievances resurfacing.
O'Sullivan stepped out in an olive-coloured shirt and began the match with a vengeance, speeding to a 4-0 lead ahead of the first mid-session interval.
Carter missed a simple pot to the bottom left in the first frame, which allowed O'Sullivan to flex his muscles for the early advantage in the hotly-anticipated encounter, as he took the lead with a 77 break.
A scrappy second frame followed but 'The Rocket' did enough to stay just ahead throughout, before planting the yellow to double his lead. He then fired in an 87-point break to strengthen his buffer to three frames.
The seven-time world champion threatened to run away with the match when he won his fourth frame in a row, concluding the opening interval of the first session with a whitewashing of Carter.
O'Sullivan picked up where he left off and continued his domination of 'The Captain', sinking breaks of 51 and 81 as he moved six frames clear in the best-of-19 battle.
The 48-year-old fell just short of a century but posted his highest break of the match so far with a run of 92 to stretch his lead to seven frames.
With a clean sweep on the cards, Carter kickstarted his fightback and responded to O'Sullivan's superiority with an excellent break of 141 for 7-1 to give him a glimmer of hope.
Carter returned to the table in the evening session needing to find his best form to come back from the afternoon’s trouncing, and he wrapped up the first frame back with an initial 36 break propelling him up to 70 and claw one back on the scoreboard.
However, O’Sullivan was just warming himself back up. A long pot off the break opened the Rocket up to smash through the tenth frame, which he duly did, cleaning up the reds and adding the black to make sure.
The 11th followed, with a fluky snooker thrown in to open the table up and bring the 2019 winner within a frame of victory.
A 44 break had him up once more, but a recovery red and a yellow from Carter meant that he still held an interest. However, a yellow from O’Sullivan forced his opponent into needing a snooker to save himself, which he could not.
The winner will face either Zhang Anda or Gary Wilson for a spot in the final, while Ding Junhui takes on Mark Allen on table two.
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