Perry has the edge over Carter

Joe Perry overcame the fatigue factor to chisel out a two frame advantage over Ali Carter after the opening session of their 888.com World Championship semi-final at the Crucible Theatre.

The Cambridgeshire potter took advantage of a below-par performance from Carter, who would have been relatively happy to be trailing only 5-3 in the best-of-33-frame showdown.

Perry had been in action until 11.30pm yesterday before closing out a dramatic 13-12 win over a shell-shocked Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals.

But the 33-year-old world number 18 showed no visible effects of his marathon match.

He appeared slightly less nervous in a tense session between two players making their first last-four appearance in snooker’s premier tournament and the one-table scenario.

Carter had made plenty of headlines for his 147 against Peter Ebdon which had earned him a share of the £157,000 prize for a maximum break alongside Ronnie O’Sullivan.

But the 28-year-old from Tiptree was kept off the table for the majority of the opening frames, as Perry scored heavily and produced some excellent safety play in carving out a 3-1 advantage before the interval.

Perry was first into his stride after opponent missed a cut on the black.

Runs of 54 and 62 were sufficient to clinch the opening frame for Perry and a 48 break put him in control of the next before a poor safety shot by Carter on the final red enabled him to close it out.

The match continued in the same vein in the third frame with Carter conceding after a 68 break from Perry.

Carter finally stopped the rot with the aid of a 49 in the final frame before the interval and when play resumed he made the most of his first decent scoring chance to compile a fluent 70.

But Perry regained his poised with a knock of 84 to move 4-2 ahead and then a heavy contact on an attempted safety shot by Carter in the seventh let in his opponent, who took full advantage with a run of 72.

It was imperative for Carter not to fall four frames behind so early in the contest and despite breaking down on 36 when missing a simple blue, he edged home in a scrappy final frame.

In the other semi-final O’Sullivan put an uncertain start behind him to share the opening eight frames with Stephen Hendry.

The Rocket won the final three frames of the initial session to level at 4-4 against seven-times champion Hendry.

O’Sullivan had beaten Hendry 17-4 in their last Crucible meeting – a semi-final clash four years ago.

But he tried to rein in his natural attacking instincts and play in a more conservative vein until the closing stages of the session.

Hendry, making a record 12th last four appearance, put together a superb 140 total clearance to win the opener and set the tone.

It was fully half an hour before O’Sullivan potted his first ball of the match midway through the second frame – but he finally came to life in frame six with a 102 break to spark off a revival.