JOE Perry overcame the fatigue factor to chisel out a two frame advantage over Tiptree's 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 on Wednesday 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 (pictured) 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 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 his 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 poise 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.
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