World Championship – Day 10 – Carter ends Trump’s run in dramatic match as O’Sullivan, Stevens and Jones secure quarter-final spots
Ali Carter beat Judd Trump 13-12 after a thrilling battle of cues that saw the Essex man having to recover from being lead 12-9. At the same time, Ronnie O’Sullivan cashing the last needed two frames to obtain a 13-6 victory over Mark Williams.
Judd Trump lost his battle with Ali Carter
Matthew Stevens landed in the quarter-finals too after beating Barry Hawkins 13-11, while Jamie Jones coped very well with his opponent’s return into the match from 10-6 down and went on to win it by 13-10.
Carter lead 5-3 after the first session, then experienced Trump’s force and got left behind 9-7 by the end of the second one – only to see him fight like a lion unleashed to come back into the match and force the decider during the last session.
Trump took baby steps to go from nine frames to 12; each time he was pushing the difference at three frames, Carter winning the next one to restore the two-frame gap.
At 12-9, the “Captain” Carter decided to take off, and with runs of 81, 39 and 53 forced the decider.
The Bristol boy was the first one with a chance, but missed a red early in the frame, Carter coming to the table. Still, he only managed to pull out a break of 20 points; soon after that the safety shots battle beginning.
Trump was the one who won it, but again he missed a red, this time Carter making the most of this chance and securing his place in the next round with a break of 47. Still, the match had one more series of “twists and turns” hidden up its sleeve.
The 2011 UK Championship winner was in need of four snookers, but decided to keep on fighting and actually got three of them after a high-class exchange of safety shots and snookers, putting an enormous pressure on Carter who thought he was safe to cross the victory-line.
Ali Carter potting for victory. Photos: Monique Limbos
However, Trump never got the last of the needed snooker, a safety shot that went wrong giving Carter the chance to pot the last red and the colours to end the match for good.
Ronnie O’Sullivan didn’t waste too much time and ended Mark Williams’ nightmare by 13-6, the Englishman already having a great advantage of 11-5 and using two breaks of 65 to get the last couple of frames needed for a place in the quarters, where he’s meeting with Neil Robertson.
With Mark Williams out of the tournament, it came down to Matthew Stevens and Jamie Jones to keep the Welsh touch alive, both of them succeeding in getting a free pass in the next round.
Although Stevens saw himself being lead 5-3 by Barry Hawking at the end of the first session, as the second was concluded he managed to get back into the match at 8-8.
When the last session began, the Welshman flew at 10-8 and although Hawkins caught up with him as the mid-session interval was kicking off, Stevens didn’t lose his bottle and scrapped on (his highest break being a 57 one) to end the match on a 13-11 score.
After seeing off the 2005 world champion after the first round, Jamie Jones made another victim in the person of Andrew Higginson, whom he beat by 13-10.
The first session was ended on a tight 4-4 result but, during the next one, Jones began his offensive and took a very important 10-6 lead.
Higginson fought back as soon as the last session started and, after a marvellous exhibition of breaks like 54, 42, 53 and 41, he completed the comeback.
But Jones didn’t seem to bother starting from “zero” and after the 15-minute break he hit back and regained his leading position with a 50 break, continued with a great clearance of 135 points and closed the deal with a 42 to set a snooker meeting with a the man who ruled on the green baize yesterday, Ali Carter.
Ramona Dragomir
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