Later in the evening session, TV coverage was back for us to see a decider in the match between Judd Trump and John Higgins which went the way of Higgins. Meanwhile, Gary Wilson reached only his second ever ranking event quarter-final as he beat Dechawat Poomjaeng very comfortably. Home favourite Ding Junhui looked better once again as he was pretty comfortable in the end beating form horse Mark Williams. Finally, Stephen Maguire's fate is now in the hands of Robert Milkins as he lost to Barry Hawkins who seems to be in much better form this week also.
Last 16 Results:
Ding Junhui 5-2 Mark Williams
John Higgins 5-4 Judd Trump
Barry Hawkins 5-3 Stephen Maguire
Gary Wilson 5-1 Dechawat Poomjaeng
Kurt Maflin 5-1 Robin Hull
Shaun Murphy 5-3 Jamie Jones
Robert Milkins 5-1 Michael White
Mark Selby 5-2 David Gilbert
That sets up another intriguing day of action in the quarter-finals tomorrow with still plenty to play for in terms of World Championship seedings as well as the overall tournament.
Quarter-Final Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Ding Junhui Vs John Higgins - This should be a good match between two players that have struggled at times this season, but have equally won some very good games this week. Ding Junhui seems to be playing a lot better now and I expect him to continue playing confidently and scoring well for the rest of this week now that the tables seemed to have turned for him. His win against Mark Williams the form player right now, was a very convincing one where he seemed to dominate most of the match. John Higgins meanwhile did struggle at times against Judd Trump, showing again some of his inconsistencies in a match, and needed a lot of chances in the middle of the match, the chances that you don't always get as many of against Ding. However, John is cueing well though and the decider he played against Trump showed that once again and that will give him even more confidence to go with that he's picked up from winning in Cardiff in February, but I fancy Ding to just edge out this match.Barry Hawkins Vs Gary Wilson - Barry Hawkins was another guy that was struggling coming into this event but, again, he has played well this week to start to turn things around heading into the World Championships and he certainly isn't finished yet. Good performances at the back end of his match with Greene and then scoring well against Dale before a good win against Maguire will give him some more confidence and that is really all that Barry needed to start turning things around. Gary Wilson meanwhile will also be full of confidence having reached only his second ever ranking quarter-final with both coming in the last 6 weeks. Gary scored well against Ricky Walden, Liang Wenbo and again today against Dechawat Poomjaeng, so if he gets enough chances against Hawkins then he can certainly beat him. However, as with Ding, I feel like Hawkins is turning a corner this week and I expect that to continue.
Shaun Murphy Vs Kurt Maflin - This should be a brilliant quarter-final between two big hitters here in Murphy and Maflin. Shaun has been tested at times this week against McGill and Jones, but he's hit back well and scored very nicely in the last two games in particular. Shaun is also full of confidence after the season he's had and is playing as well as he's ever done and is striking the ball superbly. Kurt Maflin had very little form coming into this tournament but that hasn't stopped him going on far. The first match of the week when he came from 4-2 and 66-0 down to beat Carter would've been a huge confidence boost and he's been back to his heavy scoring self ever since with three centuries amongst his wins with Dunn and Hull. The one thing that could let Kurt down in this match against such a clinical player is that sometimes if Kurt gets a little over confident he starts to attack a little too much and perhaps leave his opponents too many easy chances, which if he does this tomorrow Shaun will make him pay heavily for.
Mark Selby Vs Robert Milkins - This match now has a lot of weight attached to it as Robert Milkins is eyeing two more wins to reach the final, leapfrog Stephen Maguire in the seedings for the Crucible which would see him qualify automatically. He started the week off poorly against Bond and then having to come from 4-1 down against Surety, but his week seems to have turned around with the match in the Last 16 with Michael White, where White was out of sorts and Milkins sensed an opportunity to perhaps win this and really push for an automatic Crucible spot. That will make him incredibly fired up and determined for the rest of the week, especially now he knows it's in his hands and that two more wins would definetly do. Mark Selby is always a determined character in any match that he plays but he has been struggling at times this week with a sore neck which could be a small occurrence of some of the pain he felt in 2012 around this time in the season. However, Mark is a battler and will still be determined to win this week, but if his neck starts restricting things, it will do so more as he goes deeper and deeper through the week, and the same high breaks he showed against Slessor and Joyce were not matched against Gilbert where he needed plenty of chances, and that is not something you can always rely on against Robert, who sensed an opportunity and scored well in truly determined fashion to take his chances against White today.
So, after a rather strange day in the end at the China Open with some of the goings on off the table with TV coverage, hopefully we can find some normality tomorrow for the quarter-finals as there should be four cracking games. As usual following tomorrow's play i'll have my semi-final preview to come in the evening.
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