The opening session this afternoon was a strange affair as Ronnie got in early to take a 2-0 lead but the match following a couple of scrappy frames Ali leveled at 2-2 at the interval.The scrappy trend continued as the scoreline became 3-3. The next looked to be heading the same way with reds on cushions everywhere until Ronnie showed all his genius to win it with a break of 92 that was as good as anything i have ever seen.Insoired by this he closed the session with a sublime 141 to make it 5-3.
Onto the evening session and the scrappy nature of the match continued as they shared the first four to move the score to 7-5.There seemed to be a reluctance on Carters part to try and take the match by the scruff of the neck by taking on anything overly difficult and as he started to miss a few when he did get in the frustration seemed to be getting the better of him.Ronnie on the other hand was showing remarkable self control and patience in what is obviously a type of match he hates,
O Sullivan went on to extend his lead to 9-5 before Carter won the next to close within three again at 9-6.Ronnie won a tense 16th frame following a super snooker on the last red but Carter managed to clinch the last of the session thanks to a fluke on the frame ball red to trail 10-7 overnight.
Summing up the day i think overall the standard wasn't great but this was maybe in part to the balls running awkwardly in many frames. The match seems to be taking a similar vein to the 2008 final between the two and it will be interesting to see if it continues into tomorrow afternoon.. The shadow of Peter Ebdon has been clear for all to see in Carter's play as he continued his "negative" approach and it's hard to see that been enough to beat Ronnie tomorrow. Lets hope the Crucible crowd tomorrow are treated to a feast of snookering brilliance
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