Day 3 in Telford saw the conclusion of the 2024 Players Championship first round (last 16) and the start of the Quarter-finals round. Here is the report by WST:

Ali Carter scored a second consecutive defeat of Judd Trump, winning 6-4 to make the semi-finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Players Championship in Telford.

The Captain has now gone toe to toe with Trump three times this season. Carter lost out 10-7 in the final of the Wuhan Open, before winning a 6-5 epic in the quarter-finals of the Masters and securing this evening’s victory.

Carter will now face either Mark Allen or Gary Wilson in the last four. He will be gunning for a place in the Players Championship final for a second year in a row. Carter made last year’s title match, but lost 10-4 against Shaun Murphy.

Tonight’s win for Carter is a crucial one in the Race for Riyadh. He moves above of Ding Junhui to 8^th place in the provisional world rankings. Only the top eight at the end of this week will earn a place in the lucrative Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker.

After a fiercely contested opening to the evening, 2023 German Masters winner Carter took the fourth on the black to go into the mid-session all-square at 2-2.

After the break Carter moved ahead, before 27-time ranking event winner Trump fired in a break of 115 to restore parity at 3-3.

Carter claimed two on the bounce to move one from victory at 5-3 and had the first opportunity in the ninth. He broke down on 46 and Trump crafted a 56 break to reduce his arrears to a single frame.

The decisive frame saw Trump lead heading into the colours, but after Carter won a safety battle on the yellow he eventually cleared to win on the black and emerge a 6-4 victor.

“I’m very close to my best. I can still improve to be honest though. I’m working on all of the right things, so I think I can get better. I’m 45 this year and I’m in the top eight of the world, which isn’t bad. I’m going to keep searching for improvement, getting better and winning.”

Ali Carter

Five-time Ranking Event Winner

Carter added: “Tonight was a really big match. That has probably guaranteed my Tour Championship spot. Saudi Arabia is a bonus. If I am in that great, if not there is a lot of snooker to be played. I’m playing, winning and earning money.

“It will be a great match whoever I play in the semi-finals. I will have to be on top form and I’m sure that I will be.”

This afternoon saw the conclusion of the last 16 and Mark Selby secured a 6-3 defeat of close friend Barry Hawkins to set up a mouth watering quarter-final against old rival Ronnie O’Sullivan.

It will be the first time the pair have crossed cues in a ranking event since the 2020 Scottish Open final. On that occasion Selby prevailed by a 9-3 scoreline.

On the other table, Zhang Anda won a hard fought clash with Noppon Saengkham 6-4. That means International Champion Zhang will now face John Higgins.

I wrote, after the first round, that Judd Trump, despite the win, wasn’t playing that well and it was the case again yesterday. Ali Carter, on the other hand, looked really strong, in particular after the MSI.

Barry Hawkins started well enough but got worse as the match unfolded. For Mark Selby it was the opposite: he improved with every frame. He won five of the last six frames of the match and had a break over 50 in every of those frames. Ronnie will have to be on his game to beat him tonight. That said, WST is writing that Selby beat Ronnie by 9-3 in the last ranking event match they played. That’s true but it was more than three years ago. Maybe they should have mentioned as well that Ronnie beat Selby by 10-7 this season in the semi-final of the Shanghai Masters … hum?