John Higgins holds off Hossein Vafei fightback to progress in Kochi

John Higgins is through to the last 16 of the Indian Open after holding off a Hossein Vafei fightback to come through in a deciding frame.

Higgins was 3-0 up in the match and cruising towards victory but Hossein had other ideas as he dragged the match back. Breaks of 106, 58 and 52 saw him come back to make it 3-3, only for him to then watch Higgins win the deciding frame with a classy break of 104. The defending champion survives a massive scare but will march on to the last 16.

Shaun Murphy is out though, the number two seed falling 4-2 against Chris Wakelin as his poor season continues. Murphy had led 1-0 and 2-1 after a break of 108 in the third frame, though breaks of 65 in frame two and 63 in frame five were the highlights as Wakelin moved 3-2 up. After Wakelin missed his first chance to win, Murphy had an opportunity to force a decider but missed a double on the final red. Wakelin though won the battle on the final red and cleared the colours to seal a good win. 

Joe Perry is also heading for the exits, as he lost out 4-2 to Li Hang. In a close contest both players had made 50+ contributions in the opening four frames as the match was tied at 2-2, only for Li to step up massively in the final two frames with magnificent breaks of 109 and 116 to book his spot in the last 16.

Stuart Bingham meanwhile did get through, defeating John Astley 4-2 to book his spot in the last 16. Bingham made high breaks of 123 and 56 though Astley can rue missed chances in three of the four frames that Bingham won on the day.

The third and final top 16 player through to the last 16 was Luca Brecel as the former China Championship winner defeated Andrew Higginson 4-1 on what was a pretty comfortable evening for the Belgian. Higginson missed a major chance in the opening frame, with a bad miss on the pink into the middle with two reds left as he looked to clear. Chances were few and far between from there as Brecel showed excellent form and really punished Higginson for letting him off the hook early with breaks of 109 and 101 in the next two frames. It looked like a whitewash was imminent until Higginson got a snooker on the colours and cleared from brown to black to extend the match. The match was not extended for long though as a bright and brisk break of 96 from Brecel soon had him over the line in style, capping a great display. 

Sam Craigie is into a ranking event last 16 for just the second time after he defeated Peter Ebdon 4-1. Craigie made breaks of 50, 53 and 59 on the way to setting up a clash with Li Hang in the next round. 

In the race for tour survival, there was a crucial win for Anthony Hamilton as he also held off a late fightback to beat Zhao Xintong 4-2. Having led 3-0, Hamilton eventually secured the match after winning frame six on the colours after Zhao missed the opportunity to clear. 

Last 32 results:

John Higgins 4-3 Hossein Vafei
James Cahill 4-2 Elliot Slessor
Li Hang 4-2 Joe Perry
Sam Craigie 4-1 Peter Ebdon
Stuart Bingham 4-2 John Astley
Lu Ning 4-0 Yan Bingtao
Matthew Selt 4-0 Joe Swail
Oliver Lines 4-3 Soheil Vahedi 
Andy Hicks 4-2 Eden Sharav
Lu Haotian 4-3 Luke Simmonds
Graeme Dott 4-1 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Mark Davis 4-2 Yuan Sijun
Luca Brecel 4-1 Andrew Higginson
Scott Donaldson 4-1 Craig Steadman
Anthony Hamilton 4-2 Zhao Xintong
Chris Wakelin 4-2 Shaun Murphy 

Last 16 draw: (Picks in bold)

John Higgins Vs James Cahill
Li Hang Vs Sam Craigie
Stuart Bingham Vs Lu Ning
Matthew Selt Vs Oliver Lines
Lu Haotian Vs Andy Hicks
Graeme Dott Vs Mark Davis
Luca Brecel Vs Scott Donaldson

Chris Wakelin Vs Anthony Hamilton

Defending champion John Higgins has the task of trying to end the excellent run of amateur top-up James Cahill. To call Cahill an amateur is a very harsh statement in many ways because he has picked up regular wins all season long. His wins have included the scalp of Mark Selby at the UK Championship and Shaun Murphy at the Welsh Open and his position on the one-season money list has him above a third of the players with a pro tour card, including Michael White, who he defeated in the last 64 here. Cahill could also earn a two-year tour card based on these performances as he is currently tied with Rory McLeod for the last of eight tour card spaces on the one-year list for players not already qualified for next season. In Higgins though he faces by far his toughest test of the week in only his second appearance in the last 16 of a ranking event. Higgins has looked in better form recently and it took a good display from Hossein today to force that final frame, given how quickly Higgins has come out of the blocks in his matches this week. If the Scotsman does show any of the vulnerability that he has shown at times this season then Cahill will have the confidence from his wins over Selby and Murphy to know that he is capable of pulling off another big upset. 

Li Hang and Sam Craigie will face off in what is a tight match to try and call. Both players at their best are heavy scorers and have had nice wins so far this week. Craigie has already defeated two players ranked above him in the shape of Liang Wenbo and Peter Ebdon and knows what to expect from Li after the Chinese player blew him away from 2-0 down the last time they met. Li did similar to Joe Perry in their last 32 clash, with two centuries to close the match out from 2-2 and those purple patches that he gets on are what could hurt Craigie the most if the same were to happen in this contest. For Craigie, the last 16 is his joint best in ranking events and he will be determined to go on and set a new best here and this is a great opportunity for him given that he is not exactly facing top ranked opposition in Li, though both are very dangerous players. 

Stuart Bingham faces Lu Ning in his last 16 clash. For Bingham this will be his third opponent of the week that is outside of the world's top 64, having beaten Peter Lines 4-1 and John Astley 4-2 so far. Lu Ning will be no pushover though having beaten Liam Highfield and Yan Bingtao so far this week, only dropping one frame in the process. Bingham though is in excellent form at the moment having just reached the Welsh Open final and with the way the draw is shaping up this week he has an excellent opportunity to get to the very latter stages once again. For Lu, he will need to score heavily, though he is in the last 16 for the third time this season in a ranking event, further evidence that this may not be an easy tie for Bingham or certainly not as easy as many fans may think.

Andy Hicks is back in the last 16 of a ranking event, despite competing here as a Q School top-up. He initially received a boost after the withdrawal of Neil Robertson and has since picked up 4-2 victories against Li Yuan and Eden Sharav and will now face China's Lu Haotian. Lu has won both of his opening two games 4-3 against maximum man Zhou Yuelong and another Q School top-up in Luke Simmonds. Lu has not exactly been at his best in recent months, but it was not so long ago that he was in the semi-finals of the China Championship and this is certainly an opportunity for him this week now to end up going on a similar run here in Kochi.

Graeme Dott and Mark Davis should be another good game to watch. Both are classy players who come into this match after wins against very talented opposition in the last 32. Dott overcame Shoot Out winner Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-1, while Davis saw off Yuan Sijun 4-2. The way the draw is this week it is a great opportunity for both players as whoever comes through this should fancy their chances of making it to at least the semi-finals and maybe another ranking final. Davis reached his first ranking final at this season's English Open and this is one of his best week's since then. Dott meanwhile last reached a final just over a year ago at the German Masters and has been slightly more quiet this season, but his performance against Un-Nooh today was impressive and if he plays like he did in that game for the remainder of the week he will be a very tough man to defeat.

Finally, Luca Brecel will face Scott Donaldson. Brecel is looking to book a place in the quarter-finals for the first time since the Shanghai Masters of November 2017, while Donaldson is looking for his second quarter-final in the last three weeks after making the last eight of the Welsh Open. Donaldson has been pretty dominant in his matches this week, whitewashing European Masters champion Jimmy Robertson in the last 64 before a comfortable 4-1 victory against Craig Steadman in the second round here in Kochi. Brecel meanwhile was a 4-0 winner in round one against Ian Burns before making two centuries and a break of 96 in his last 32 victory against Andrew Higginson and looking generally to be in better form than he was during the entirety of the calendar year of 2018. Lower ranked though Donaldson may be, his recent results show that this will be no pushover for Brecel to break his long quarter-final duck and there is certainly the possibility of an upset here.

Following the last 16 action in the first half of Saturday's play, the four quarter-finals will follow on Saturday evening in Kochi and this is how the draw will shape up for those matches.

Quarter-Final Draw: 

John Higgins or James Cahill Vs Li Hang or Sam Craigie
Stuart Bingham or Lu Ning Vs Matthew Selt or Oliver Lines
Andy Hicks or Lu Haotian Vs Graeme Dott or Mark Davis
Luca Brecel or Scott Donaldson Vs Chris Wakelin or Anthony Hamilton


All of the last 16 and quarter-final clashes will be played over the best-of-7 frames.