COLCHESTER'S Ali Carter is out of this year's snooker Masters.
The 38-year-old went down 6-4 against former world champion Shaun Murphy, in this afternoon's first-round tie at Alexandra Palace.
Murphy, the 2015 Masters winner, romped into a convincing 4-0 lead.
After sneaking a narrow opening frame, he won the second and then managed breaks of 119 and 87.
That put him in pole position at the mid-session interval but Carter, who grew up in Tiptree, showed his mettle to win the next two frames with breaks of 99 and 117.
Murphy moved to within a frame of victory thanks to a break of 93, but Carter won the next two frames - making breaks of 50 and 93 - to make it 5-4.
However, Murphy held his nerve with a break of 76 to wrap up a 6-4 success.
He now plays Judd Trump in the quarter-finals on Friday afternoon.
Trump advanced into the last eight after a 6-4 victory against China's Liang Wenbo on Monday night.
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