Ronnie O’Sullivan hammers Ali Carter at Tour Championship

By Phil Blanche

Ronnie O’Sullivan demolished Ali Carter 10-2 to win what had been termed a grudge match and reach the semi-finals of the Tour Championship.

The pair had not met since their ill-tempered meeting at the Masters final in January, which O’Sullivan won 10-7.

Carter accused O’Sullivan of “snotting all over the floor” and The Rocket responded by saying his opponent was “not a nice person” during an expletive-laden rant.

O’Sullivan refused to speak about Carter in his pre-game interview, letting his snooker do the talking in a one-sided contest in Manchester that was over within an hour of the mid-match break.

Carter never settled after missing an easy red in the opening frame which O’Sullivan punished by making a 77 break.

A scrappy 28-minute frame followed and O’Sullivan went to the interval 4-0 ahead after compiling breaks of 87 and 54.

Carter’s best in the first session was a meagre 13 and his senses seemed scrambled when he attempted to swerve around the yellow and struck one of two reds left on the table.

O’Sullivan capitalised with a frame-winning 51 and extended his advantage to 7-0 with breaks of 81 and 92 – those efforts taking a total 14 minutes.

Carter headed into the final frame of the afternoon session with the grim prospect of being whitewashed.

But he responded in superb fashion with a 141 clearance to eclipse Tom Ford’s 138 as the highest break of the tournament, placing him in prime position for a £10,000 bonus.

Carter closed out O’Sullivan again at the start of the evening session, with breaks of 36 and 70 reducing the deficit to 7-2.

It was a false dawn, however, as Carter ran out of position and missed a red for O’Sullivan to make a 62 clearance.

O’Sullivan then cashed in with a decisive 52 break after another Carter error had opened up the table.

Carter was put of his misery in the 12th frame as O’Sullivan compiled 67 before going in-off in the middle pocket, a rare mistake in a snooker masterclass.

Zhang Anda and Gary Wilson will resume their quarter-final on Thursday level at 4-4, with the winner meeting O’Sullivan in the last four.

Wilson won two frames on the black to lead 3-1 before Zhang fought back strongly in an even contest.