Hotting up in Haikou

Business as usual for top guns.

We've been graced with a fantastic line-up for the Quarter-finals of the Haikou World Open, as all of the players in the last 8 are in the top 16.

The early session on the Hainan island saw comfortable victories for the top 2 in the world as Judd Trump hit 3 century breaks in beating Nigel Bond 5-1. Meanwhile Mark Selby won 5-1 against Barry Hawkins. By no means was this a great match as the top break of the match was a 61 from Barry Hawkins in the first frame in what was a scrappy affair. However, Selby did what he does best and got through and will look to improve for the rest of the event. On the non-televised tables Neil Robertson thrashed Graeme Dott 5-0 in what he described as his "best performance in China". He made breaks of 78, 86 and 83 and capitalised on the chances that he was given by former World champion Dott. Another former World champ, Shaun Murphy, squandered a 3-1 mid-session interval lead to lose 5-3 to Matthew Stevens who once again was without his own cue and joked that he should put his own cue "in the bin" went it finally arrives with him. After a 110 break from Murphy in the 4th frame, he then had chances to win all of the next 3, but lost them all. A break of 73 from Welshman Stevens sealed a fantastic victory.

In the later session the battle of the home favourites, Ding Junhui and Marco Fu, was won by Ding 5-2. After being 2-1 down Ding made a 127 to level up and then won the next 3 after the interval to seal only his second Quarter-final spot in a ranking event this season. Mark Allen described his performance against Robert Milkins as embarrassing and later apologised on twitter to "anyone that had to watch that" despite winning 5-2 and continuing his title defence. On the non-televised tables, John Higgins showed a slight return to form, whitewashing Stuart Bingham. Higgins made a break of 105 in the first frame and a break of 64 in the third and barely gave the recent Welsh open runner-up a chance. In the final match of the 2nd round Ricky Walden came from 4-2 down to beat Stephen Maguire, who's cue he won with in the 1st round, 5-4 with a pressure break of 70 in the decider.

Quarter-Final Draw

Mark Allen Vs Ricky Walden
Ding Junhui Vs John Higgins
Judd Trump Vs Matthew Stevens
Mark Selby Vs Neil Robertson

Pick of the last 8: Trump who was superb against Bond.

Some great matches there, and should be really close calls too in what has to be the best line-up for the Last 8 for some time including a Masters final repeat.

Should be fantastic viewing, and is reward for ITV4's magnificent coverage of the tournament so far. I'll be back tomorrow to round-up the Quarter's and look ahead to the Last 4 and thanks for reading.