Carter making Hendry struggle

Stephen Hendry’s bogeyman Ali Carter threatens to haunt the fives-time champion at the Travis Perkins UK Championship in York tonight.

World number 17 Carter has beaten Hendry three times out of four, and the pair resume this evening with the result still in the balance.

It did not look that way early in the opening session as the recently crowned British Open champion fired in breaks of 52, 57, 105 and 72 to lead 4-0.

But the mid-session interval came at the wrong moment for the seven-time world champion.

When the game resumed Carter began a stirring recovery which brought him to 4-4 at close of play.

He started his comeback with a brilliant 143 clearance – the highest break of his professional career.

It also eclipsed Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 140 for a possible £7,500 highest-break prize.

A 59 clearance in the sixth frame was not as substantial but in its own way was just as good – because it brought him back from 52-0 down to trail only 4-2.

Another half-century brought the score back to 4-3, and Carter produced a final effort of 64 to level at 4-4.

In another Anglo-Scottish clash, Carter’s fellow Essex professional O’Sullivan leads Glaswegian Alan McManus 5-3.

In a tremendous session O’Sullivan compiled breaks of 125, 134 and 121.

McManus, who came from 7-1 down to stun Dominic Dale 9-8 in his last match, played his part. He led 2-1 and levelled the match at 3-3 with a break of 80.

But O’Sullivan, chasing his fourth UK title in 11 years, finished off with 96 and 121 as McManus scored just eight points in reply.

The world number three from Chigwell requires four more frames to earn a last-eight meeting against Australian Quinten Hann.