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

O’Sullivan cruises to another frame as he gets over the winning line in the frame with the minimum of fuss. He flukes a red on 79 to keep the break going and keep the hope of a first century alive but the split of the final four reds goes wrong and the ton remains elusive!

A break of 81 and Ronnie O’Sullivan wins frame to move 6-0 ahead. This is a demolition job on Ali Carter.

Three reds and three blacks for O’Sullivan before he’s forced to cannon into the pack and go up to play for the blue. Nicely played and the balls are split very nicely here. He’s only on 30 but this is already a glorious frame-winning chance for ‘The Rocket’.

Gasps and oohs from the Manchester crowd as O’Sullivan floats a long red into the right corner. He’s straight back into a strong scoring position in frame six.

Carter left the arena after that fifth frame to try and gather his thoughts. He needs some turnaround from here.

O’Sullivan wins the safety battle and pulls out a nice mid-range pot on the red before tidying up the remaining reds. He’s slightly out of position on the black but finds a nice pot to the left corner and lands perfectly on the yellow at the other end of the table.

A lovely clearance of 51 and Ronnie O’Sullivan wins frame five. A steal off Ali Carter and compounds his misery to make it 5-0.

Carter clears the easy reds with blacks to move into a 48-26 lead. Four reds remaining and this is where the work really starts.

He goes up for the red in the baulk area and then makes an error coming back down the table, landing behind the pink and covering the potting angle on the next red.

Forced to play safe and Carter leaves the table with a 52-26 lead and three reds remaining.

The reds pretty well spread with pink and black both available, so this a decent table for O’Sullivan to score on. But he misses a pink to left middle with the score at 26-8!

Carter simply has to make the most of this surprising opportunity.

O’Sullivan leading 10-4 in this frame as the safety continues. Carter leaves a pot on to the right corner but O’Sullivan follows the red in with the cueball! That’s another surprising mistake from Ronnie.

Carter doesn’t punish him though - misses the pot by quite a way to leave O’Sullivan in among the balls.

That was rather un-Ronnie like. He cues across the white ball and misses a fairly straight red into the right corner. Carter pots the red, then yellow but pink and black are tied up, with the blue also not on its spot, so it’s not exactly a great scoring chance.

Forced to play safe after a break of four and makes a mess of that as well, double-kissing the blue to leave the cueball in mid-table.Luckily no pot is left for O’Sullivan.

Carter accidentally sends the white into a corner pocket off the red during a safety exchange but no real harm done as O’Sullivan isn’t left with a pot.

Eventually, Carter has a go at a long pot down the left cushion but it rattles both jaws and stays out. Close! The wait for a first scoring opportunity in this frame goes on.