Ronnie O’Sullivan v Ali Carter LIVE: Tour Championship updates from grudge match

Carter misses the yellow and hits the black! So O’Sullivan now leads by 31 points with 27 points remaining. He’ll tidy the frame up from here, you’d think.

Wonderful safety shot by O’Sullivan! Cue ball near the baulk cushion behind the green with the target yellow ball tucked tightly behind the black at the other end of the table!

Carter has to hit this AND get it safe. O’Sullivan only needs to pot the yellow to win the frame.

A long-ish yellow is frame ball for O’Sullivan and he misses it! He just can’t put this frame away! He leads by 24 points with 27 remaining, so Carter will need to clear all the colours to snatch it

But we’ll have a safety battle first.

Carter swerves out of the snooker but leaves the red for O’Sullivan to cut to the left middle. Chance to wrap the frame up here.

Left with a tricky red along the bottom cushion though… Plays it dead-weight and rolls it in! That should be the frame now.

Carter pots a red to narrow his deficit to 31-22 but misses a long blue up into the yellow pocket. O’Sullivan in again and plays an exquisite shot on the yellow, dragging the cue ball down the table to dislodge the two reds on the bottom cushion. He’s unlucky to see the white land tight on one of them and not leave a pot.

34-22 to O’Sullivan with two reds remaining and he gets cArter in trouble with a safety shot behind the green.

And now O’Sullivan misses with the rest and bangs his cue in frustration. This has become a very scrappy frame. 31-21 to O’Sullivan with a handful of reds left.

Nice long pot by Carter although the cue ball runs away towards the left cushion slightly. Tricky blue but he cuts it in and gets a friendly cannon off the red on the cushion.

But the next red requires an awkward rest shot around the blue and he misses it as it rattles the jaws of the right corner pocket.

This has gone really scrappy now. Both men miss very makeable pots on the red to the right corner before O’Sullivan finally gets one to start another break with a lead of four poins.

Carter gets into the cue ball way too much off the opening red. It zips all the way back up the table, meaning ‘The Captain’ is forced to take the brown to the middle pocket and can only leave himself with a tricky mid-range red.

Misses it by an absolute mile with the rest and leaves O’Sullivan with a long pot. Missed by Ronnie though, so no damage done for Carter in this disjointed frame. 25-15 to O’Sullivan as we head for a bout of safety with six reds left.

Positional error with the break on 16 by O’Sullivan, coming up a long way short of where he would like to be for the blue. He digs out a nice pot on the yellow but cannons into the pink and isn’t on a red.

O’Sullivan’s lead is 25-10 after that break of 18 but a mistake with the safety shot leaves Carter a chance to hit back…

Ooof! Decent safety by Carter but O’Sullivan pulls out a gorgeous long pot into the left corner. His long potting can sometimes be Ronnie’s weakness but if that’s on point, then this could be a long day for Carter!

O’Sullivan in among the balls but still only has the blue to work with as a high-value colour.