Mark Williams and John Higgins are among the top stars to fall on day four at the English Open

The top seeds have come crashing down on day four at the English Open, with a number of the world's top 16 falling across the last 32 and last 16. 

World champion Mark Williams was the most high profile as he looked very out of sorts in a 4-3 loss to Zhou Yuelong in the last 32. Williams had looked comfortable up until that point in the tournament, but seemed to be fighting with his cue action and clearly looked unhappy throughout the contest, as Zhou took advantage. 

John Higgins was another of the top stars to tack a tumble on day four. He had beaten Martin Gould in the last 32 quite comfortably, but fell foul of one of his bogey players in Mark Davis. Davis had won five of their six most recent matches in ranking events and set about extending that good record by winning the final two frames of a 4-2 victory. 

Davis will now play Ryan Day in the quarter-finals after Day took care of Judd Trump in the last 16. Trump had fought back from 3-1 down on Wednesday night in round two against Zhao Xintong and was 2-0 down to Jack Lisowski in the last 32 before winning 4-2, but could not keep the comebacks coming against the Welshman. He shut Trump out of the opening two frames before then making two centuries later on in the match on the way to recording a 4-2 triumph. 

Shaun Murphy will have to wait a little longer to get his season moving in the right direction after he lost out 4-1 to Robert Milkins in the last 32. Milkins would later lose 4-3 to Noppon Saengkham despite valiantly fighting back from 3-0 down to force the decider against the Thai. 

Barry Hawkins relinquished a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3 against Daniel Wells, who had also beaten Joe Perry earlier in the week, as well as beating Lee Walker from 3-1 adrift. Wells then went to a decider for the third time in a row as he took on Ali Carter, but on this occasion he had no further tricks up his sleeve. 

Neil Robertson was another top player to succumb on day four on what was an excellent day for WSF Champion and tour rookie Luo Honghao. Luo was one of the three rookies I picked out as players to watch at the start of the season and he is already living up to that billing. Early on Thursday, he booked his spot in the last 16 to face Robertson after a 4-2 win against Anthony McGill, before then beating the ninth seed by the same scoreline with breaks of 56, 69 and 74. 

The overwhelming favourite now to win this title is defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had a much more comfortable day on the baize. The top seed recorded back-to-back 4-1 wins, firstly against Matthew Stevens and then against Eden Sharav. O'Sullivan is the only one of the top 10 seeds for this tournament remaining in the draw after a day of surprises in Crawley. 

Last 32 results:

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Matthew Stevens

Eden Sharav 4-0 Craig Steadman
Neil Robertson 4-1 Alan McManus
Luo Honghao 4-2 Anthony McGill
Judd Trump 4-2 Jack Lisowski
Ryan Day 4-2 Mark King
Mark Davis 4-2 Mei Xiwen
John Higgins 4-1 Martin Gould
Ricky Walden 4-3 Ben Woollaston
Stuart Bingham 4-3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Ali Carter 4-1 Matthew Selt
Daniel Wells 4-3 Barry Hawkins
Robert Milkins 4-1 Shaun Murphy
Noppon Saengkham 4-1 Yuan Sijun
Stephen Maguire 4-2 Jordan Brown
Zhou Yuelong 4-3 Mark Williams

Last 16 results:

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Eden Sharav
Luo Honghao 4-2 Neil Robertson
Ryan Day 4-2 Judd Trump
Mark Davis 4-2 John Higgins
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Ricky Walden
Ali Carter 4-3 Daniel Wells
Noppon Saengkham 4-3 Robert Milkins
Stephen Maguire 4-0 Zhou Yuelong

Quarter-final draw: (Picks in bold)

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Luo Honghao
Ryan Day Vs Mark Davis
Stuart Bingham Vs Ali Carter
Stephen Maguire Vs Noppon Saengkham

Opening up quarter-finals day at the English Open is the match between Stuart Bingham and Ali Carter. Bingham has gone about his business well so far this week, having dropped just three frames on the way to the last eight, all of which were in his last 32 match against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. He started off the week with whitewashes against Duane Jones and Hossein Vafei, before winning the final two frames of his match against Un-Nooh from 3-2 adrift. He then added to that by dominating Ricky Walden in the last 16, to record his third whitewash of the week. Carter meanwhile has had a tough route starting out against Rory McLeod before victories against Luca Brecel and Matthew Selt and a deciding frame victory over Daniel Wells. Carter's form over the last year has been far from stunning, while Bingham has looked really strong so far this week and is a clear title contender. If Bingham continues to score heavily then that may well give him the edge between these closely matched players. 

Second on the bill is the match between Ryan Day and Mark Davis. Day has been absolutely sublime so far this week, whitewashing Ashley Hugill in round one with a high break of 141, before a 4-0 victory against Zhang Yong in round two that also featured a century, before his 4-2 victories against Mark King and Judd Trump that featured another three centuries overall. Day was recently a quarter-finalist over in Lommel at the European Masters and having won three tournaments last season he should be full of confidence and finally have a comfort level in the latter stages of these tournaments. For Mark Davis this has already been a great week reaching another ranking quarter-final, but he will have to be at his very best against Day if he is going to go much further. It is tough to believe that Davis has slipped down the rankings enough to only be the 42nd seed for this tournament and the ranking points he has earned here will have him moving back in the right direction and another great result here cannot be completely ruled out. 

Ronnie O'Sullivan is well and truly the man to beat in this tournament now, as if he was not already, and once again he will be heavily fancied to beat the lowest ranked player to make the last eight in the shape of Luo Honghao. O'Sullivan has already played a series of players that are well outside of the top 32 in Kurt Maflin, Allan Taylor, Matthew Stevens and Eden Sharav, conceding just three frames in the process and while not at his best, he has remained fairly untroubled. Luo Honghao is an excellent talent who showed great fight and determination to pull his opening round match against Adam Duffy out of the fire at 3-0 down and from that fire a Phoenix has been born. From there he has recorded 4-2 wins against Stuart Carrington, Anthony McGill and Neil Robertson to show what he is capable of but this is a new level for him. Playing the great O'Sullivan produces nerves in many without it being your first ranking quarter-final and he has little experience of playing in proper TV conditions, while O'Sullivan has been a fixture of the TV table throughout the week, making this even tougher on young Luo. 

Finally, Stephen Maguire will face Thailand's Noppon Saengkham for a coveted semi-final spot. Maguire has gone somewhat under the radar this week but he looks to be in very good form. He needed to play well to recover and beat James Cahill 4-3 in round one before wins against Chinese youngsters Yan Bingtao and Zhou Yuelong with a win over Jordan Brown sandwiched in between. It is one of the mysteries in snooker currently that Maguire has not added to his ranking title tally of five since early 2013 when he won the Welsh Open, having only been in one final since then at the 2017 Riga Masters. That final did signal a return to form as he has gone on to make the semi-finals of both the 2017 UK Championships and 2018 World Grand Prix before starting this season with a semi-final at the Riga Masters. Now he is bidding for his fourth ranking semi-final in the last 12 months, but while his opponent may be seeded 20 places lower this week, Noppon is still a big threat. The Thai was a semi-finalist in the last Home Nations event of last year, before losing to Barry Hawkins in the last four in Cardiff. He then overcame the likes of Day and Selby to make the semi-finals of the World Open earlier this season before losing from 5-2 up against Mark Williams and it is a great effort to see him bounce back so quickly. Some of the demons from that loss to Williams and a loss from 4-2 up against Hawkins in the China Championship recently may have been exorcised in his last 16 victory over Milkins where he held on to win 4-3 despite leading 3-0 in quick time. For me though, there is a strong feeling that Maguire is looking more and more like returning to the big time and getting back in the winners circle and with the draw as it is, this could be his week. 

All of the quarter-final matches will be played on Friday over the best-of-9 frames with three of the four matches being on the main Eurosport TV table, while Maguire Vs Noppon will be available to watch on the Eurosport Player at the same time as O'Sullivan Vs Luo. With the guaranteed prize money doubling from £10,000 for quarter-finalists to £20,000 for semi-finalists, tomorrow is a massive day for the remaining non-top 16 players.