Masters 2024: Ali Carter beats defending champion Judd Trump to reach semi-finals

Ali Carter beat reigning champion Judd Trump 6-5 to reach the semi-finals of the Masters at Alexandra Palace.

A see-saw encounter saw Carter establish a 4-2 advantage with three half-centuries and a break of 103.

Trump then made a sublime 129 as he began a fightback, reeling off three frames in a row to lead 5-4.

However, Carter took a nervy 10th frame with a superb 43 clearance to level and sealed his victory with a fine run of 64 in the decider.

"You have to try and hold on to these special moments. To make a clearance like that in those circumstances and in front of a crowd like that is a feather in my cap," Carter told BBC Sport.

"For all the money I looked like I was going to go 5-3 in front and I lost my composure for a couple of frames.

"I had worked really hard but [I was] delighted to make an unbelievable clearance to force a decider and then how I held myself together I don't know."

Mark Allen and Mark Selby play later on Friday (19:00 GMT) in a repeat of the 2023 World Championship semi-final, with the winner scheduled to face Carter in the last four on Saturday evening.

World number two Trump was hoping to join a select quartet of Cliff Thorburn, Stephen Hendry, Paul Hunter and Ronnie O'Sullivan to have won the tournament in successive years.

But unlike 12 months ago, when Trump also failed to produce his best snooker in his opening two matches, this time he paid the price against an opponent who, until this appearance, had not featured at the Masters since his run to the 2020 final.

There were signs Trump was not at his clinical best early on despite a break of 80 to take the second frame and while both players made uncharacteristic errors, Carter's scoring was slightly better throughout.

Trump's only century of the contest, plus an outrageous fluke in the eighth frame - when he missed a pot on the green but managed to snooker Carter from knocking it into the top left corner with the brown - looked to have rattled his opponent and handed him the initiative as he went ahead for the first time in the match.

But Trump will reflect ruefully on two spurned opportunities in the 10th frame, when he ran out of position and then overcut a red to the left corner that would have left Carter requiring snookers to save the match.

"He played well and I struggled," Trump said.

"He should never have really had that chance [in the 10th frame], it was terrible from me. I had two perfect chances to win the game and I'm obviously disappointed but he deserved to win."