German Masters snooker 2024: Sam Craigie topples defending champion Ali Carter to book maiden semi-final spot

Sam Craigie booked his place in the first semi-final of his career, and sent defending champion Ali Carter crashing out of the German Masters in the process.

On the back of his run to the final of the Masters, Carter had high hopes of winning the tournament for the third time in his career.

But he was never given a sniff of a chance, as Craigie dominated from the outset and played rock-solid snooker to power into the last four courtesy of a 5-1 win.

Craigie arrived at the Tempodrom with little form to his name this season – second-round defeats at the Wuhan Open, Northern Ireland Open and Scottish Open being the highlights – but he has always had an excellent cue action and he demonstrated that with a fine 71 to take the opener.

He doubled his lead, and showed his all-round quality in taking the second frame.

A break of 65 left Carter needing a snooker, but he laid a fiendish one after Craigie missed the final red. After mulling over his options at the escape for some time, Craigie sent the cue ball round the table off four cushions and made perfect contact with the red.

Carter continued to ask questions, Craigie continued to come up with answers and the former eventually conceded when failing to pot a green and left it hanging over the top right.

The third was a rollercoaster of emotions for Carter. Craigie had a huge slice of luck when missing a pot and leaving the white in the jaws of the bottom right. Carter took an age to rise from his seat, a clear indication that he was not too pleased with what he had been left, but he composed himself to knock in a tough red.

Just as he looked set to gain a foothold, he ran out of position on 42 and swiped the table in frustration. Clearly irked by the big bounce off the cushion, Carter compounded the error with a terrible safety.

Craigie countered with 50 before missing a tough blue, and it looked set for Carter to take the frame but he missed a black by some distance, and trudged back to his seat with a downbeat look on his face.

The miss proved costly as Craigie picked off the colours he needed to move into a three-frame lead

Craigie was in red-hot form on Friday, and produced one of the pots of the season in knocking in a blue to keep a break going in the fourth frame. He missed a tough red one ball later, but it showed his form and put his opponent under the pump.

Carter went for a big pot but missed by some way and was back in his seat before the balls had stopped moving, such was his frustration.

Craigie did not pass up the invitation, as he knocked in the 98th century of his career to go into the interval with a four-frame lead.

Carter’s race looked run when he missed a red at the start of the fifth and sent balls careering round the table and into great positions for Craigie.

But this is a man who had never won a quarter-final before, and he ran out of position on 11. Carter found a good pot to mop up a break of 90 to get on the board.

Craigie could have been forgiven for tightening up, but there were no signs of it as he kept his composure to wrap up the win.

He knocked in a tough red to get underway in the sixth and kept the cue ball under tight control in a nerveless break of 89 to stamp his ticket to a semi-final clash with Judd Trump.

Kyren Wilson is a former winner of the German Masters, and he kept his hopes of a second title alive with a 5-0 win over Fan Zhengyi.

Wilson was totally dominant as breaks of 125, 69, 51 and 55 saw him set up a clash with Si Jiahui.