Only four of the top 16 seeds have made it through to round four after eight of the top 16 fell during the last 32 of the UK Championships.
Judd Trump, Barry Hawkins, Marco Fu, Neil Robertson, Luca Brecel, Kyren Wilson, Liang Wenbo and Mark Williams were all defeated over the course of Monday and Tuesday's action with only John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Allen remaining to fly the flag for the top boys.
Victory for Ryan Day 6-5 over Mark Williams and a deciding frame loss for Robertson against Mark Joyce on Monday meant that the Australian will not be in the draw for the 2018 Masters.
The highest seed coming into the round was Trump but Graeme Dott saw to the end of him, winning all of the last six frames in a 6-2 victory. The 2006 world champion had high breaks of 93, 86, 72, 67 and 64 on the way to another good victory against Trump and his second of this season against the left-hander.
Lu Haotian had four breaks of 80+ as he continued his fine form by beating Marco Fu 6-4. Lu had already shown Anthony Hamilton and Peter Ebdon the exit this week off the back of his semi-final in Northern Ireland and set down a marker with a 121 to take the opener. Two further breaks of 85 and a run of 80 in the final frame helped him over the line.
Mark King meanwhile won each of the last three frames and won a frame needing four snookers earlier in a 6-3 triumph over Luca Brecel. Stephen Maguire kept his nice start to the tournament going with a deciding frame defeat of Liang Wenbo which may well leave Liang in Masters jeopardy depending on how results go in the coming days.
Shaun Murphy though performed very nicely as he saw off Jimmy Robertson 6-3 with breaks of 88 and 93 along the way and finishing the match at over 90% in pot success, long pot success and safety success according to the BBC's statistics.
John Higgins brought an end to the run of Yan Bingtao. Yan had been in fine form but looked shaky as he fell 3-0 behind. He clawed his way back into things and levelled at 3-3 but Higgins was dominant tactically and that certainly helped him over the line here.
One of the major shocks of the round was the whitewash win for Akani Songsermsawad against Barry Hawkins. That added to victories against Fergal O'Brien and Michael Holt already in York.
The Thai will now face Ronnie O'Sullivan who has no trouble in seeing off a below par Michael White 6-1.
Last 32 Results:
Li Hang 6-1 Scott Donaldson
Ryan Day 6-5 Mark Williams
Mark Joyce 6-5 Neil Robertson
Lu Haotian 6-4 Marco Fu
Shaun Murphy 6-3 Jimmy Robertson
Ricky Walden 6-2 Kyren Wilson
Mark King 6-3 Luca Brecel
John Higgins 6-3 Yan Bingtao
Graeme Dott 6-2 Judd Trump
Stephen Maguire 6-5 Liang Wenbo
Joe Perry 6-3 Kurt Maflin
Mark Allen 6-4 Peter Lines
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-1 Michael White
Akani Songsermsawad 6-0 Barry Hawkins
Martin Gould 6-4 Hossein Vafei
Xiao Guodong 6-3 Noppon Saengkham
Last 16 draw: (Picks in Bold)
Ryan Day Vs Li Hang
Mark Joyce Vs Lu Haotian
Shaun Murphy Vs Ricky Walden
John Higgins Vs Mark King
Stephen Maguire Vs Graeme Dott
Mark Allen Vs Joe Perry
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Martin Gould Vs Xiao Guodong
Ryan Day has not quite guaranteed his passage into the Masters but defeat for Neil Robertson has certainly helped that cause massively. A win here against Li Hang would all but guarantee his place and he overcame Li in the Northern Ireland Open so certainly has some positive thoughts feeding into this game. Li is not to be underestimated though, he has had a very strong season and can score heavily and make the most of any errors from Day.
Lu Haotian is in fantastic form and despite some good wins from Mark Joyce this week as well, many will make Lu favourite here. His run to the Northern Ireland Open semi-finals was impressive but the players he has beaten and the manner in which he has accomplished it this week has been very impressive.
Shaun Murphy looks to be in fantastic form so far this week and was very impressive against Jimmy Robertson in the last round. However, Ricky Walden also looked very good in the last round against Kyren Wilson and is finally getting back close to his best after his back troubles. Walden has beaten Murphy the last two times they have faced one another and was also the victor against the Magician on the way to the semi-finals in York in 2011.
Graeme Dott has a fairly even record against Stephen Maguire but has beaten his fellow Scotsman in a number of their meetings in big tournaments over the last few years. He thrives on the big stage and showed what he still had in the locker with his big win against Trump. Maguire has looked good in this tournament but has still looked a little inconsistent at times this season despite signs of improvement, and this looks like a close contest.
Mark Allen and Joe Perry sets up as another tight affair. Perry has come back into some good form and has scored well in his wins so far against Billy Castle, an in-form Jack Lisowski and Kurt Maflin. Allen is also scoring well and has been in good form all season, but will know he has by far the toughest test of his week so far when he takes on Perry.
It will be interesting to see how Ronnie O'Sullivan deals with the threat posed by Akani Songsermsawad. Akani is a good player who can score heavily but also seems to have a psychological advantage on a few of the established players he has beaten and is able to get inside players heads. His wins this week show he is very capable, but with Dr Steve Peters help, the days of O'Sullivan losing to Akani's style of player look to be gone.
Martin Gould and Xiao Guodong is another interesting game between two players in good form. Xiao has looked good for most of the season and I said at the start of the week that he could have a good run here in York. Both he and Gould have been scoring well and this heavy scoring will probably be the theme for this contest. Gould has reached a semi-final recently in Daqing and the quarters in Shanghai, but Xiao also looks to be coming back to his best, although I still think there is potential for much more from the Chinese star. Once again, this is another tight game to call.
All matches will now be televised or streamed as the tournament goes down to two tables for these last 16 matches that are to be played across Wednesday and Thursday and over the best-of-11 frames once again.
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