Davis, McGill, Trump and Selby complete Quarter-final line-up

Mark Davis, Anthony McGill, Judd Trump and Mark Selby have joined yesterday's winners John Higgins, Alfie Burden, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Neil Robertson in the quarter-finals, following the second day of Last 16 action at the European Masters in Bucharest.

Mark Davis was the first man through on an almost non-stop day of action, as he came through a tight match with Liang Wenbo. This match was a rather high quality one as both players traded big breaks in the early stages. Liang won the opener an 81, before Davis went one better with an 82. China's number two did not relent, recording a 103 century break in the third to move ahead once more. Again Davis drew level, but frame five looked like a vital one after a closely contested frame saw Liang move in front for a third time. A chance came for him to clinch the match 4-2, but Davis was up to the task of clearing to force a decider. Then his bottle and brilliance shone through (having at no stage been ahead in the match) to make a deciding frame century break and set up a quarter-final clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan. 

Anthony McGill came through the all-Scottish clash with Scott Donaldson next, in a match that also went right down to the wire. McGill looked good in the early stages taking a 2-0 advantage, with a closely fought second frame under his belt. Donaldson did not drop his head though, grabbing the next two to square things up at 2-2. McGill's highest break came in the fifth, a contribution of 55 helping one frame away from victory, but Donaldson hit back again to take the sixth in one visit with a run of 86. In the end the experience of the Indian Open champion helped him over the line, dominating the deciding frame to book his place in the last eight, but after coming through four matches to qualify for the recent Shanghai Masters, this has been another good week for Donaldson. 

There was only a very short turnaround before the evening session, and in contrast to the opening couple of matches, Judd Trump came through with a whitewash of Andrew Higginson in under an hour. Higginson never settled into the match despite having plenty of chances in the first couple of frames. He allowed Trump in for a 61 to take the first, and in the second a missed black when things were looking good for 1-1 was the vital error as Trump doubled his advantage. Higginson did not ease off on his attacking game plan though, and again the chance was handed to the left hander, and he duly took it with a break of 118 to move one away from the next round. There was no trouble for Trump in crossing that line as another classy effort of 94 sealed his simple progression into the quarter's. 

Completing a day of two halves was Mark Selby who also recorded a 4-0 win in his match against the struggling Barry Hawkins. Hawkins has not had the best start to the year, and is sliding down the rankings as other players have picked up their games, and things did not get any better for him in this match. Hawkins certainly had chances, though Selby had some bits of good fortune but it was the misses from the Masters runner-up that are damaging his ambitions of returning to the Alexandra Palace for the Masters next January. Selby got ahead early in frames, putting the pressure on Hawkins despite not killing any of the frames off in one visit, and his highest break of 63 coming in the fourth and final frame. World champion Selby will now play the lowest ranked player left in the competition in Alfie Burden. 

Quarter-Final Draw and Schedule:

11am UK time: Judd Trump Vs John Higgins
To follow: Mark Selby Vs Alfie Burden
5pm UK time: Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Mark Davis
To follow: Neil Robertson Vs Anthony McGill

The cream has risen to the top with top players like Trump, Higgins, Selby, O'Sullivan, Robertson and McGill all through to the last eight, while Alfie Burden and Mark Davis will come in as outsiders. O'Sullivan started to look very good in his match with Mark Allen on Wednesday and that could be a sign of him starting to move up through the gears and making a dash for the title. Selby will be happy to be into the quarter-finals after replacing his tip between the Last 32 and Last 16 and will now look to kick on and go one better than his runners-up finish to Ding Junhui in the Shanghai Masters. The games between Trump and Higgins up first on Friday, and with McGill and Robertson who will complete the action look very tough to call and could go down to the wire, as we have seen with a number of matches this week. For me Robertson has looked very impressive this week and all season so far, while the head to head between Trump and Higgins will only tell you to expect a high quality, close encounter.  

All quarter-final matches are played over the best-of 7 frames.