Snooker:Neil Robertson outplayed a weary Ali Carter in the first session of their marathon last-four showdown as he began his quest to give Australia their first ever Crucible finalist.
The 28-year-old opened up a 6-2 lead over Essex cueman Carter in their World Snooker Championship semi-final, having had the benefit of an early-afternoon finish to his previous match.
By contrast Carter had a late night, taking out Shaun Murphy in a final-frame quarter-final decider, and then found it difficult to settle down and sleep.
He eventually nodded off at around 3.30am, and when he arrived in the theatre for his 2pm start against Robertson the 30-year-old's start was sluggish.
So sluggish in fact that he lost the opening five frames and from that position to finish as he did was a minor success.
Carter has dismissed his chances of winning the world title but that has been part of an exercise in self-kidology.
Working with sports psychologist Steven Sylvester, Carter has adopted the policy of flatly refusing to look beyond his next match.
"I've no hope of winning. It's wanting to win that sometimes makes you lose," he said.
"I've lost myself too many tournaments before through wanting it too badly. It stops you getting it which is a funny thing, and it's only when you get a bit older that you realise you have to let things come at their own pace.
"When I'm lifting the trophy, that's when I'll think I can win it."
Robertson went 4-0 ahead after breaks of 124 and 91 and winning the third frame from a position where he required a snooker.
He actually pinned Carter in three snookers and was rewarded with fouls each time.
That lead was extended by a break of 76 in the fifth frame, but Carter eventually stepped up his performance.
He edged a tight frame before Robertson dominated the next.
Carter, runner-up in 2008, then had a fluke at the start of the eighth frame and went on a break of 38 before making a swift return and firing in 69 to trim Robertson's lead again.
Eddie Charlton was Australia's last World Championship finalist, in 1975, when the tournament was actually staged in Robertson's home city, Melbourne.