Ali Carter fights back to beat Joe O'Connor and book his place in final of Players Championship

Ali Carter overcame bouts of frustration to rally from 4-2 down to beat Joe O’Connor 6-4 and book his place in the final of the Players Championship. Carter is famed for his steely character and he needed to dig in against O’Connor in Wolverhampton on Friday. O’Connor played well for decent spells of the match and also had some good fortune on his side, which had Carter muttering to himself and shaking his head in frustration.

Ad But he overcame the setbacks and found decent form towards the end of the contest to keep his hopes of a second title of the season alive, to follow up his German Masters success. Players ChampionshipO'Connor sets up Carter semi-final after win over BrecelYESTERDAY AT 17:25 Carter awaits the winner of the second semi-final between Kyren Wilson and Shaun Murphy, which takes place on Saturday evening. Carter worked the first opening of the contest and made a break of 40 before breaking down.

It looked like a handy lead until O’Connor picked off a mid-range red with aplomb and ran through a break of 68 which was enough to take the opener. O’Connor had a good chance in the second after knocking in a long red and dropping on the black. He looked well positioned to go on and double his lead, but under-hit a pink along the bottom rail and was forced to watch on as Carter countered with a 52.

Carter did not close out the frame at the first time of asking and there was the drama of O’Connor forcing a snooker to keep the frame alive, but a foul on the final red enabled Carter to draw level. A poor break from O’Connor handed Carter an easy starter in the third and he compiled a quick-fire break of 42 before failing to get the split he wanted and elected to run for cover. The sensible option proved to be