Neil Robertson won four of the last five frames on the black in taking a 9-7 lead over Ali Carter in a dramatic session at the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship.

Last year’s runner-up Carter will be kicking himself overnight, having missed balls at crucial stages during the session as he fell two frames behind in the best-of-13 second round clash. The contest was livened up by some fist-pumping celebrations from Australia’s Robertson, which appeared to rankle with his opponent.

The first opening tonight came to Carter, who trailed 5-3 overnight. In positive fashion he built a breaks of 47 and 69. The Tiptree cueman levelled by taking the second of the evening, a scrappy 34 minute encounter, the longest of the match so far. A fluent effort of 71 got him into the lead for the first time at 6-5.

Carter, who holds a pilots licence, looked to be flying high and on his way to opening a two frame margin, only to see Robertson clear with a determined 56 break. In potting the final black, Robertson screamed with joy as he left the arena for the interval.

Welsh Open champion Carter began the next with a composed 66, but missed a red to a centre pocket. His opponent picked off the loose reds available, developed the final tricky red from a side cushion and went on to clear the table with an impressive 68 to go into a 7-6 lead.

Again the scores were tied, as Carter showed the resolve that got him to last year’s final by knocking in a clinical 72 to level the match for the fifth time.

Frame 15 saw Carter construct a 65 break, but, to his horror, he again failed to make the frame safe, missing a routine red. Melbourne’s Robertson, the Bahrain Championship winner, clawed his way back, and despite missing the last brown, got another chance and cleared to the black to go 8-7 ahead.

In the last of the session, Carter, looked well on his way to restoring parity until he wobbiled the penultimate red at 56-27. It was deja vu for the Essex man as he watched Robertson clear the table to pinch it. The match concludes on Monday afternoon at 2.30pm

Meanwhile, Jamie Cope and John Higgins produced a session of high-quality snooker and go into their final session tomorrow inseparable at 8-8 (Ben Cook writes).

Higgins began the evening in style, a marvellous break of 128 edging the Scot in front at 5-4. Cope replied in the tenth frame with a 58 to draw level again at 5-5.

Higgins continued the flurry of breaks with a 74, before Cope produced the second century of the session, a 102, to leave the match tied at 6-6 at the mid-session interval.

Stoke potter Cope went in front for the first time in the match in frame 13 with an 84, before failing to trouble the scorers in the next two frames.

Higgins took the next with a 113 and added the 15th to lead 8-7. Cope showed great character to put that behind him, producing a fabulous 118 to even things up at 8-8. Four centuries and three more breaks above fifty made this session one of the most memorable so far at this year’s tournament.

It has also set the scene for an exciting final session when the match is played to its conclusion tomorrow afternoon.