Mark Selby gets the best of Ali Carter to advance to English Open semi-finals

Mark Selby advanced to the semi-finals of the English Open after coming through a gruelling back-and-forth match with Ali Carter.

First blood went the way of Selby after a scrappy opener but a missed black in the second opened the door for Carter to draw level.

It would be Carter who found his groove in the third with an impressive century to move into a 2-1 lead.

However, the hometown Essex favourite could not capitalise and a horrible miss allowed Selby to close out the frame and head into the interval level pegging.

Carter returned with more of a spring in his step and restored his lead with a 77 break having seemingly shaken off the mistakes.

However, a crucial missed green at the start of the sixth presented Selby with a opportunity he grabbed with both hands, picking up his first century of the match with 127.

Selby then stepped on the gas and a break of 68 put him within a frame of victory.

There would be no comeback for Carter as four-time world champion Selby wrapped things up with a 73 break.

He now faces Neil Robertson in the semi-final on Saturday.

Speaking afterwards, Selby admitted that he started the match slower than he would have liked, and ultimately benefited from a change of approach following the mid-match break.

“Before the interval, it was scrappy, rubbish,” admitted Selby afterwards. “I felt like I needed to get some momentum, pick the tempo up a little bit.

“Sometimes I tried a little bit too hard to play perfect snooker so I went on the practice table, hit a few balls and when I went out there I thought, ‘if I get a chance I would try pick the tempo up and see what happens. Can’t get any worse.’”

He added: “How I was playing before the interval, I felt I was taking forever and after the interval when I got on it, I felt I was running around like a lunatic.

“It probably didn’t look like it, but to me, I felt I was running around like an idiot”.

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