O’Sullivan routs Carter at Tour Championship

Ronnie O’Sullivan thrashed Ali Carter 10-2 in the quarter-finals of the Tour Championship in Manchester

Ronnie O’Sullivan hammered rival Ali Carter 10-2 to reach the semi-finals of the Tour Championship in Manchester as he looks for his sixth title of the snooker season.

O’Sullivan raced into a 7-0 lead on Wednesday before Carter stopped the rot with a break of 141 and then took the ninth frame as well, only for ‘The Rocket’ to reel off the next three frames.

O’Sullivan – who will face Gary Wilson or Zhang Anda in the last four on Friday – and Carter became embroiled in a war of words after the former beat the latter to win The Masters in January.

Carter accused O’Sullivan of “snotting on the floor” during his 10-7 victory at Alexandra Palace, an accusation that led to the seven-time world champion launching an expletive-laden response and saying Carter was “not a nice person” and a “nightmare”.

The two players were calm in the pre-match interviews ahead of their Tour Championship meeting, with O’Sullivan refusing to speak about Carter.

The match itself turned out to be extremely one-sided as O’Sullivan took his head-to-head record against his opponent to 19-1.

The Rocket, who played in an eye-catching mustard-coloured shirt, has previously won six titles in a single season in 2000/01 and could emulate that this term after victories at the UK Championship, The Masters, World Grand Prix, Shanghai Masters and World Masters of Snooker.

‘I have not enjoyed the last two years, I have driven myself mad’

O’Sullivan said afterwards that he had not enjoyed his last two years on the circuit and had “gone back to basics” with his thought process after speaking to psychiatrist Steve Peters.

The 48-year-old told ITV4: “I’ve just decided I’m going to change my thinking and forget about trying to fathom my game out. If I change my thinking I can accept whatever is thrown at me and take whatever.

O’Sullivan and Carter became embroiled in a war of words after The Masters final in January

“It’s been a hard year, drove myself pretty much insane really. It’s just got to me. I decided to speak to Steve Peters, said I wasn’t happy. I had to go back to basics and get my head right.

“Deal with it because doing it the other way round isn’t working. I’ve got to accept that’s life. You can’t be perfect all the time and trying to be perfect all the time is not ideal.

“Just getting my head around it is the only option I have left. I’ve driven myself mad for the last two years and not enjoyed any of it.”

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