ALI CARTER knows how to overcome adversity so it is hardly surprising he found the steel needed to beat Graeme Dott and keep his Betfred World Championship hopes alive.

The 38-year-old has twice beaten cancer, as well as living with Crohn’s disease, and he drew on all that battling spirit to see off the Scot on Sunday.

At 6-3 down after the first session, Carter looked like falling at the first hurdle – in part due to his lacklustre display and in part because Dott is perhaps the toughest player on tour.

But he arrived at the Crucible on Sunday and produced some excellent snooker to reach the second round with a 10-8 win.

The Captain now goes onto face Ronnie O’Sullivan, the man who beat him in both his appearances in the final in 2008 and 2012.

But Carter is not fazed and says he has a free swing after coming through a tough encounter against Dott – who beat him at this stage a year ago.

“I've been through a lot in my life. I've been very ill and got over it,” he said, referring to the testicular cancer he beat in 2013 and lung cancer a year later.

“I don’t think I would have done if I didn't have that fight in me and I used that to get over the line.

“Sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not but it was this time, thankfully.

“I just wanted a win.

"I haven't been at the races and I read a comment from Stephen Maguire saying he thinks he has been left behind and I thought I feel like that too.

“So I thought ‘let’s do something about it’ and I've done that.

“It was hard-fought match. Graeme kept digging in and made it hard all the way through.

"To win the final frame of the first session and get out 6-3 kept me in the match.

“I've won the match from 6-2 behind."

Carter was so far behind because he freely admits he was poor on Saturday night against the 2006 World Champion, who had already played three qualifying matches and was razor sharp.

But Dott could not live with Carter’s vastly-improved safety game and ruthlessness in the balls.

He fell 8-7 behind but regrouped and, as soon as he went 9-8 up at the end of a half-hour struggle in frame 17, the result was inevitable.

“I think he was gutted I beat him and I was gutted last year so it is his turn," added Carter.

"I've got respect for Graeme. He has achieved what I haven’t.

“I've almost achieved it but not quite so I have to have respect for him.

"He is a great guy – but he thought he had done me.

“He thought the job was done but it wasn't done and you can never think you have got a match in the bag so that's a lesson to him.”

Watch the snooker World Championship LIVE on Eurosport and Eurosport Player with Colin Murray and analysis from Ronnie O’Sullivan, Jimmy White and Neal Foulds.