The Last 16 of the International Championships in China was certainly more of a day for the favourites with no really massive shocks on day 4 in Chengdu. Ronnie O'Sullivan had a routine win against Li Hang, while Ricky Walden and Marco Fu came through slightly tougher tests 6-4 in their respective matches. Mark Williams also came through 6-4 against Sam Baird while fellow Welshman made consecutive ranking event quarter-finals with victory over Ian Burns. In the closely matches ties Robert Milkins overcame Xiao Guodong, while Mark Allen got his revenge for the Shanghai Masters final by beating Stuart Bingham. The only slight surprise of the day came as Jamie Burnett thrashed Peter Ebdon who had been in very good form.
Last 16 Results:
Michael White 6-2 Ian Burns
Mark Allen 6-4 Stuart Bingham
Mark Williams 6-4 Sam Baird
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-1 Li Hang
Ricky Walden 6-4 Joe Swail
Jamie Burnett 6-2 Peter Ebdon
Robert Milkins 6-4 Xiao Guodong
Marco Fu 6-4 Rod Lawler
With todays results the quarter-final draw looks very strong with a number of top players into the last 8 despite all of the early week upsets. In terms of the Champion of Champions spots, Michael White, Mark Williams, Jamie Burnett and Robert Milkins are the only guys left in the International Championship that haven't yet qualified which is good news for Ali Carter who is the next highest ranked to have not yet qualified.
Quarter-Final Draw: (Picks in bold)
Mark Allen Vs Michael White - Mark Allen is in brilliant form so far this season and I said ahead of this tournament that he was due a win in one of the games biggest tournaments and these days the International Championship is probably the biggest outside of the Triple Crown events. With 2 centuries today to get his revenge on Bingham he's showed that he's still in fine form and I expect him to continue that way for the rest of the week. The win at the Paul Hunter Classic with finals at the Riga Open and Shanghai Masters he'll also be full of confidence. He won't get an easy ride tomorrow against Michael White though. Michael is in top form as well after a quarter-final at the Shanghai Masters and another quarter-final here as well as his semi-final in Bulgaria he'll be flying with his belief. However, without the same experience as Allen I'm not quite sure if he's ready to go one better and beat the best players in form to get into ranking finals and win ranking events for this season at least.
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Mark Williams - As he tweeted today in comical style, Ronnie O'Sullivan has been the thorn in Mark Williams side now for the last 12 years and it's about time Mark got his revenge. Mark Williams seems like he's well up for it this week, scoring well and winning tough matches by coming through with flying colours. He was really up against it today at 4-3 down and 61 points behind in the 8th frame so to win 6-4 from there shows the strength and determination that Mark has this week and nothing will make him more determined than being able to finally get one back on one of his old rivals in Ronnie O'Sullivan. Ronnie has been giving players chances this week, but when they've not punished him he's been sure to jump all over their mistakes. He's looked in mean mood, scoring well and winning matches convincingly. His victory against Li Hang today again showed he was on top form, and he said afterwards he wants an adrenaline rush. Well if he can't get an adrenaline rush and be determined tomorrow to beat one of his old rivals then, he's simply doing something wrong and Mark will be there to punish him, because nothing pumps you up more in sport than playing one of your biggest opponents, and a chance for revenge.
Ricky Walden Vs Jamie Burnett - All credit firstly has to go to Jamie Burnett for his performances this week to beat three very tough opponents in Matthew Stevens, Judd Trump and Peter Ebdon and that will offer him a big boost having said he wasn't enjoying his snooker after last seasons World Championships. However, such big performances and big matches against top players takes a lot out of you and every match in these tournaments becomes harder and harder, and having not been in these positions for a while I don't know how Burnett will perform tomorrow, and this unpredictability doesn't make him a good tip for tomorrow. When Ricky Walden gets to these stages of events he always seems to be playing some solid snooker and producing some solid performances, even if he hasn't had the tough opponents he may have expected at the start of the week. Victories over David Morris, Zhou Yuelong and Joe Swail have seen Ricky having to battle hard as always and at times he's got a little bogged down in matches, although in separate patches it seems as though he's been fluent and making good breaks which is an indicator as to how far Walden can go this week. It will be a tough match for both players and it is sure to be hard fought but I have to think that Ricky will come through.
Marco Fu Vs Robert Milkins - Finally, this match looks to be the closest and toughest call of all of the matches for me. Robert has been very fluent so far this week with wins against Barry Pinches, Shaun Murphy and Xiao Guodong and he's scored pretty well in all of those matches and kept his opponents under pressure from the early stages in order to force plenty of openings. Neither Robert or Marco has been very consistent through the season with their performances, but for the winner tomorrow this event will surely be a turning point to better things to come in the second half of the season. This week has actually been a struggle for Marco Fu, having to battle incredibly hard and give a pint of blood for all of his victories against Liam Highfield, David Gilbert and Rod Lawler. While he's played well in patches he's had to fight incredibly hard at others, and when you get to this stage of a tournament, you need to have plenty of fight in you, but I'm not quite sure how much Marco really has left in him, while Milkins has had a slightly easier ride so far putting him at a mental advantage.
The quarter-final line-up really is looking like a strong one and I'd say that at least 3 of those 4 games have potential to go the full distance tomorrow as the players battle away for places in the best-of-17 frame semi-finals and I'm sure it'll make for very entertaining snooker over the next 4 days.
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