There were comfortable victories for Judd Trump against James Wattana, Mark Selby over John Astley, Ding Junhui thrashing Matthew Stevens, John Higgins easing past Jak Jones, Stuart Bingham beating Dominic Dale and recent English Open champion beating fellow Chinese Li Hang.
Things were not quite as simple meanwhile for Neil Robertson who played out a drawn out affair with Anthony Hamilton. Hamilton did lead 4-3 after quite a long period of play, but 50+ breaks in consecutive frames from Robertson turned the tables and put him 5-4 ahead when the match was taken off having overrun for time. Resuming after the first match to conclude in the evening session, Robertson made a further contribution of 50 to win 6-4.
Ronnie O'Sullivan had to play well to fight off Kurt Maflin. Having led 2-0 early on O'Sullivan was pegged back to 2-2 at the intermission. He edged ahead once more at 3-2, only for Maflin to win the next two and lead 4-3. However, O'Sullivan stepped up and levelled once more at 4-4 before then winning the next two frames with breaks of 84 and 101 sealing a 6-4 win.
Shaun Murphy had to battle hard against young Chinese sensation Yan Bingtao coming through in a deciding frame. As in his first round match against Robin Hull, he found himself 3-1 behind at the mid-session break before winning the sixth on a re-spot in another mirror of the Hull match to level the scores at 3-3. He took the seventh for a third frame on the trot but then lost the next two to breaks of 60 and 50 which left him on the brink, 4-5 adrift. Murphy dug in with his highest break in the match, an 84, to force the decider and then came from behind in the final frame to seal a tense victory.
Elsewhere, Ali Carter came from 5-2 behind to beat Stephen Maguire, Michael Holt came from 5-3 adrift to overcome Daniel Wells while Ricky Walden beat Graeme Dott 6-4 in a close encounter that Walden finished with a century. Joe Perry ended Aditya Mehta's run after coming with a 6-3 victory, improving on his match with Andrew Higginson when he had to come from 5-2 down to book his Last 64 spot.
Only three of the sixteen remaining players are from outside of the World's Top 32. Sam Baird was the most impressive of these adding a win over Marco Fu to his earlier scalp of Michael White in this event. Baird had led 3-0 early on in the match only for Fu to turn things right around and lead 4-3. From here Baird dug deep and turned things around himself to win all of the next three frames and record an impressive 6-4 win.
James Wattana is in the Last 16 of a ranking event for the first time since 2006 after beating Chinese amateur wildcard Xu Si 6-4, while Zhou Yuelong beat fellow non top-32 player Mark Joyce 6-4, after being pegged back from 4-1 to 4-4.
Last 16 Draw and Schedule:
7.30am UK Time:
John Higgins Vs Zhou Yuelong - TV TABLE
Mark Selby Vs Liang Wenbo - TV TABLE
Stuart Bingham Vs Ali Carter
Shaun Murphy Vs Sam Baird
12.30pm UK Time:
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Michael Holt - TV TABLE
Ding Junhui Vs Ricky Walden - TV TABLE
Judd Trump Vs James Wattana
Neil Robertson Vs Joe Perry
A brilliant line-up remains for the Last 16 with the World Champion playing the most recent winner on tour in Liang Wenbo. Stuart Bingham will take on Ali Carter for the fourth time in ranking competition in 2016, while Shaun Murphy and Sam Baird will play in a professional match for the first time. Ronnie O'Sullivan will be hoping not to fall to Michael Holt for the third time in succession, with Holt having beaten him in March's Grand Prix and in the Shanghai Masters last month. Two former winners face off when Ding plays Walden, while practice partners will turn rivals once more with Robertson taking on Joe Perry.
All of these matches remain over the best-of-11 frames format to set-up what should be a sensational quarter-final line-up given all of the top players left in this week.
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