Jack Lisowski has reached his second ranking event quarter-final of the year after victories on Thursday at the English Open over Mark Williams and Judd Trump.
First up in the last 32, Lisowski stormed into a 3-0 lead over Williams with runs of 65, 74 and 50 to get off to a fantastic start. Williams quickly came back into things with a run of 88 on the way to successive frames that pegged Lisowski back to 3-2. However, when his chance came in frame six he took full advantage and booked his place in the last 16 with a match high of 90.
There were a number of other stand out results in the morning and afternoon last 32 matches. Defending champion Liang Wenbo could not follow up his heroics of Wednesday when he made a 147 in a comeback from 3-1 down against Tom Ford, as he was whitewashed by fellow Chinese star Yan Bingtao.
It was another Chinese player in Xiao Guodong who sent home the world champion Mark Selby, in a match that was moved out on to an outside table. This probably suited Xiao a lot more than it showed as he notched up an impressive 4-1 win with breaks of 60 and 51 in the final two frames.
Stuart Bingham complained of his opponent Hossein Vafei's gamesmanship after losing to the Iranian on the final black. Bingham had trailed 3-0 and looked gone for all money, yet he fought back with breaks of 104 and 58 on the way to forcing a deciding frame. A nervy decider ended with Hossein potting an impressive black and letting out a big show of emotion as he clinched his place in the last 16.
John Higgins came back from a position where he needed snookers to avoid falling 3-0 behind to beat Robert Milkins 4-3. Milkins quickly moved 2-0 ahead and had Higgins searching for snookers on the colours in the third frame, but when he got them and cleared to get back in the match at 1-2 it turned the game on its head. The Scot then moved 3-2 ahead before Milkins composed himself enough to force the deciding frame, but it was Higgins who would make the vital break in the final frame to get over the line.
Shaun Murphy was able to hold on and win a deciding frame in a high scoring match with Liam Highfield, while Neil won the battle of the Robertson's with Jimmy while Ronnie O'Sullivan also cruised past Zhang Yong in a match that featured a bizzare ending. A "table invader" came running past security and began to do laps of the table as O'Sullivan cleared the colours for his final frame century break, before then letting her have a go at trying to pot the black having already secured victory. In all it was quite a clever move from O'Sullivan to defuse what could have been an equally dangerous or embarrassing situation for World Snooker.
Last 32 Results:
Yan Bingtao 4-0 Liang Wenbo
Anthony McGill 4-3 Akani Songsermsawad
Neil Robertson 4-2 Jimmy Robertson
Aditya Mehta 4-1 Chen Zifan
Judd Trump 4-1 Matthew Stevens
Jack Lisowski 4-2 Mark Williams
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Zhang Yong
John Higgins 4-3 Robert Milkins
Michael White 4-0 Ben Woollaston
James Wattana 4-2 Yuan Sijun
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-2 Stuart Carrington
Shaun Murphy 4-3 Liam Highfield
Andrew Higginson 4-1 Hammad Miah
Hossein Vafei 4-3 Stuart Bingham
Kyren Wilson 4-1 Thor Chuan Leong
Xiao Guodong 4-1 Mark Selby
The last 16 continued to produce eye-catching results, the biggest of which was the aforementioned victory for Lisowski over his good friend in a deciding frame. Despite the breaks displayed there were also a few mistakes from both players with Lisowski saying afterwards that he still feels the pressure when playing on TV of all eyes being on him. After fighting back from 2-1 and 3-2 behind with runs of 52 and 67 his most impressive break was save for last as he knocked in a stunning long red, coming round off two cushions for the black to start what went on to be a match winning contribution of 80.
That has set a quarter-final date with Ronnie O'Sullivan after he came through a fourth round classic with John Higgins. Higgins led at 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 with runs of 138, 73 and 78 but each time the Rocket raced back at him. He impressed once more with an 88 in the second frame, 84 in the fourth and 60 on the way to forcing the decider. When he got the first chance in the decider he grabbed it with both hands, compiling a brilliant 91 to close out the victory.
Michael White ended the run of James Wattana with a break of 91 in the deciding frame to make the quarter-finals. White will not play Alexander Ursenbacher after the young Swiss star took out Shaun Murphy 4-1 with top breaks of 76, 82 and 123 to reach his first ever ranking event quarter-final.
Kyren Wilson was on fire in dispatching Xiao Guodong 4-0, making two centuries and a break of 97 in the process. Anthony McGill came back to see off Yan Bingtao 4-3, while Neil Robertson kept his much needed run going with a 4-1 defeat of Aditya Mehta.
Last 16 Results:
Anthony McGill 4-3 Yan Bingtao
Neil Robertson 4-1 Aditya Mehta
Jack Lisowski 4-3 Judd Trump
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-3 John Higgins
Michael White 4-3 James Wattana
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-1 Shaun Murphy
Hossein Vafei 4-1 Andrew Higginson
Kyren Wilson 4-0 Xiao Guodong
Quarter-Final Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Neil Robertson Vs Anthony McGill
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Jack Lisowski
Michael White Vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Kyren Wilson Vs Hossein Vafei
An impressive line-up awaits for the best-of-9 frame quarter-finals. First up, Neil Robertson will be looking to keep his good run going this week knowing that he could put himself back on the right side of the race for the Masters. He has been scoring well this week and fought hard at times after falling behind in a couple of his earlier matches. Anthony McGill meanwhile has been pretty consistent all season and had his nerve tested on Thursday by coming through two deciding frames against talented young players. Overall that could be a match that goes the distance.
Kyren Wilson and Hossein Vafei will follow that in the afternoon session. Wilson looks back to some of the heavy scoring form that he showed on the way to the World Open final, beating Xiao Guodong in no time at all in the last 16. That sort of form would more than likely be too hot for Hossein to handle if he could repeat it, but Hossein has had some good results this week. He held on well after Stuart Bingham came back at him in the last 32 and overcame heavy scoring Zhao Xintong in the round before that. Hossein is a very talented player and we have seen that already when he reached the China Open semi-finals earlier in 2017 so he is more than capable of doing so again with a victory over Wilson.
The exciting tie of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Jack Lisowski will feature on table one in the 7pm session and it could be another very close game. Lisowski has already shown what he is capable of with wins over Williams and Trump on the TV table and it is wins like these that will slowly make him more comfortable on the TV, having described the negative thoughts that go through his head when he plays on TV. He also said in interview with Eurosport after his win over Judd that he has never played O'Sullivan in professional competition but has practised a lot with him, so will not have some of the mental scarring that other players may have against the five-times World champion. O'Sullivan has been on top form this week, but if Lisowski continues scoring as heavily as he has been he can go toe-to-toe with him and they may need all nine frames to be separated.
Finally, on table two at 7pm Michael White will face Alexander Ursenbacher. Some may look at this as a mis-match with Ursenbacher being in his first quarter-final, but this did not stop him against Shaun Murphy in what was his first appearance in the last 16 of a full ranking event. Ursenbacher is an incredibly talented young player who is a heavy scorer as he showed against Murphy and he will give White a good match here. The Welshman does look to be in fabulous form. He is playing as well as he did when he won the Paul Hunter Classic in August and has already seen off Ding Junhui this week and is scoring brilliantly, as he showed in the thrashing of Woollaston and tight tussle with Wattana on Thursday.
An exciting day lies ahead as the final four will be decided in Barnsley.
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