Matthew Stevens produced an excellent display in the second half of his match against Ding Junhui to come back from 3-1 down and win 6-5 to progress to the quarter-finals of the International Championship.
Ding took an early 2-0 lead with breaks of 50 and 61 before taking what looked like an important fourth frame to lead 3-1. Stevens struck back though and was level at 3-3 after a break of 61 in the sixth. Ding would retake the lead at 4-3 only for Stevens to produce excellent runs of 67 and a match high break of 127 to move ahead for the first time at 5-4. A missed red in the tenth led to a 66 break from Ding as he forced the decider, but it was a sensational long pot that gave the Welshman the chance he needed in the final frame, following it up with a run of 63 to clinch victory.
The Chinese number one may be out, but the world number one Mark Selby has continued his quest for a third straight International Championship title after a 6-3 defeat of Stuart Carrington. Selby fell 3-2 with Carrington making breaks of 54, 57 and 70. Selby though ran out four straight frames with breaks of 85, 77 and 53 to knock the stuffing out of Carrington.
2012 International Champion Judd Trump was an easy winner 6-1 against Yan Bingtao with breaks of 62, 68 and 104, while the other remaining Chinese player Yuan Sijun was defeated 6-4 by Neil Robertson. The Australian had trailed 3-1 and came back from snookers required in the eighth frame to level at 4-4 before finishing with breaks of 127 and 125.
Mark Allen's heavy scoring continued as he defeated Alfie Burden 6-1 with breaks of 55, 77, 101 and 112, while Jack Lisowski finished with breaks of 103 and 106 in the final two frames of his match against Martin Gould, winning in a deciding frame.
Former International runner-up David Gilbert was thrashed 6-1 by Martin O'Donnell while in the final match to finish on Wednesday, Ali Carter made a high break of 132 on the way to coming through a tight match against Akani Songsermsawad.
Last 16 results:
Mark Selby 6-3 Stuart Carrington
Neil Robertson 6-4 Yuan Sijun
Jack Lisowski 6-5 Martin Gould
Judd Trump 6-1 Yan Bingtao
Martin O'Donnell 6-1 David Gilbert
Matthew Stevens 6-5 Ding Junhui
Mark Allen 6-1 Alfie Burden
Ali Carter 6-4 Akani Songsermsawad
Quarter-final draw: (Picks in bold)
Mark Selby Vs Neil Robertson
Judd Trump Vs Jack Lisowski
Matthew Stevens Vs Martin O'Donnell
Mark Allen Vs Ali Carter
Mark Selby and Neil Robertson will meet again in the latter stages of another big tournament. Over the last six years they have had many big meetings that come to mind. Excluding the Championship League, the head-to-head is 7-7 with Selby's wins including a 2012 UK quarter-final from 4-0 down, the 2013 Masters final, the 2014 World Championship semi-final and at this stage of the 2015 International Championship. Robertson's wins meanwhile include a World Open quarter-final in China, the 2013 China Open final and the UK Championship final of the same year, as well as a 2015 UK Championship semi-final whitewash. This could well be another classic tie with Robertson beating Yuan Sijun and Joe Perry in two tight matches this week, while Mark Selby has scored heavily in increasing his record in the International Championship to have now won 23 of his last 24 matches in this event.
Judd Trump will meet Jack Lisowski once again, with the pair having just played in the last 32 of the English Open with Trump winning 4-2 there. That win edged Trump ahead 5-4 in their overall head-to-head but at the moment Lisowski is in the more impressive form. This will be his fifth quarter-final of the season, though he has lost the last three with some poorer performances. This week he has scored heavily and come through tough matches against Martin Gould and Marco Fu in the last two rounds. Trump meanwhile has had an easier route, with no one taking their chances against him yet. If Lisowski continues his high scoring, Trump has given away plenty of chances to his opponents despite the fact he has only conceded two frames, so Lisowski has an excellent chance against him here.
Matthew Stevens and Martin O'Donnell is a tale of two surprise quarter-finalists. O'Donnell made the quarter-finals of the last Chinese ranking event at the China Championship, and since going 4-2 down in the last 64 to Peter Lines he has won 16 of his last 17 frames in total. Stevens has had much tighter matches with a 6-4 win against Jordan Brown being followed by a pair of deciding frame wins against Mark King and Ding Junhui. It has been something of a resurgence for Stevens to get back in another ranking quarter-final having last reached one at the 2014 Australian Open. This is a very tight one to call with O'Donnell's victories against David Gilbert and Tom Ford showing that he is excellent form, while Stevens was superb against Ding.
Finally, Mark Allen will face Ali Carter for a place in the semi-finals. Carter was a quarter-finalist at this event last year, and is in back-to-back quarter-finals after reaching the last eight at the English Open before losing to eventual champion Stuart Bingham. Mark Allen meanwhile is in an International quarter-final for the fifth time, having twice made the final of this event including here last year. The head-to-head between these two is even, though their most recent non-Championship League meeting was this year at the Riga Masters where Allen won 4-2, with their previous ranking meeting prior to that coming in 2014. Allen has been in heavy scoring form with three centuries in his comeback win against Liam Highfield, breaks of 142 and 146 in his victory over Hossein Vafei and a further two tons against Alfie Burden in the last 16. Carter may have only made two tons this week across his whitewash win over Kurt Maflin and 6-4 wins against Stephen Maguire and Akani Songsermsawad but he has made a number of 50+ breaks so it looks like both players are in top form this week.
All four quarter-finals will be played over the best-of-11 frames on Thursday, with Allen Vs Carter and Trump Vs Lisowski featuring at 6.30am UK time while Selby Vs Robertson and Stevens Vs O'Donnell will follow at 11.30am in the UK, with places in the best-of-17 frame semi-finals on Friday and Saturday up for grabs.
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