UK Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan will meet last year's Scottish Open runner-up John Higgins in a repeat of last year's quarter-final after both players came through two matches on Thursday.
O'Sullivan had to come through a decider in the last 32 against Li Hang, but still had breaks of 70, 103, 65 and 80 on the way to that 4-3 win. Then in the evening he saw off Michael White - who had impressively beaten Kyren Wilson 4-1 earlier in the day - with runs of 92 and 75 on the way to a 4-1 win.
Higgins meanwhile did not drop a frame in his two wins first against Gerard Greene and then over Ashley Hugill. Against Greene he finished strongly, having started the week with some impressive heavy scoring, and that continued with runs of 91 and 113 in the final two frames against the Northern Irishman. Hugill was in the last 16 for the first time after overcoming Peter Lines earlier in the day, but the nerves showed on the TV table against the Scottish number one and Higgins capitalised for a second whitewash of the day.
Also through to the last eight is Neil Robertson who finished off his last 16 tie against David Grace with back to back centuries, coming from 2-0 behind to win 4-2, after beating Chris Totten 4-0 in the last 32. The Australian now faces Xiao Guodong in the quarter-finals and is looking for his first ranking event semi-final in over 14 months.
Xiao was the man to see off defending champion Marco Fu. Fu was lucky to come through against Zhou Yuelong in the last 32, coming from 3-2 behind to win 4-3 and it looked like he may do the same when he came from 3-0 down to force a decider with Xiao. Fu built up a 59 point lead in the decider and was looking good until missing a blue into the middle that was virtually match ball. That left Xiao amongst them and he cleared with a 73 break, featuring a very composed final pink and black under the pressure, especially having already failed to take match winning opportunities in previous frames.
In the bottom half of the draw, Stephen Maguire made sure that there was a second home representation in the quarter-finals. He scored very well in the last 32 to overcome young Yan Bingtao 4-3 with runs of 77, 78, 78 and a deciding frame 91 to secure victory. He then faced another young Chinese player in the last 16, and ended up brushing Xu Si aside 4-1 despite losing the opening frame.
Ricky Walden is into his first ranking event quarter-final since the 2016 English Open after coming through a deciding frame with Rory McLeod to continue his return to form. McLeod had already won through in a decider to knock out Ding Junhui in the last 32, despite Ding looking good with two centuries in the contest. Walden meanwhile saw off an in-form Mark Joyce in round three completing victory in that match with a 105 break. He then took a 3-1 lead against McLeod, before the former Ruhr Open winner hit back with runs of 72 and 50 to force the decider. When he needed to though, Walden dug deep and made the vital break, with a 53 in the decider seeing him over the line.
Walden will now face Cao Yupeng who survived a decider of his own in the last 32, winning the last two frames to defeat Daniel Wells there, before thrashing Tom Ford 4-0 in the last 16.
Judd Trump completed the quarter-final line-up with a final frame victory against Elliot Slessor, who fought back well from 3-1 down but in the end Trump was too strong, just as he was earlier on Thursday against Michael Holt. Runs of 104 and 57 helped Slessor from 3-1 down back to 3-3, but unlike earlier in the day when he overcame Peter Ebdon, he could not get a foothold in the decider with Trump's early 51 break proving pivotal. For Slessor though it was another good week, following on from a semi-final in Northern Ireland.
Last 32 results:
Marco Fu 4-3 Zhou Yuelong
Xiao Guodong 4-1 Noppon Saengkham
David Grace 4-3 Zhang Anda
Neil Robertson 4-0 Chris Totten
John Higgins 4-0 Gerard Greene
Ashley Hugill 4-1 Peter Lines
Michael White 4-1 Kyren Wilson
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-3 Li Hang
Rory McLeod 4-3 Ding Junhui
Ricky Walden 4-1 Mark Joyce
Tom Ford 4-0 Stuart Carrington
Cao Yupeng 4-3 Daniel Wells
Stephen Maguire 4-3 Yan Bingtao
Xu Si 4-2 Craig Steadman
Elliot Slessor 4-3 Peter Ebdon
Judd Trump 4-0 Michael Holt
Last 16 results:
Xiao Guodong 4-3 Marco Fu
Neil Robertson 4-2 David Grace
John Higgins 4-0 Ashley Hugill
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Michael White
Ricky Walden 4-3 Rory McLeod
Cao Yupeng 4-0 Tom Ford
Stephen Maguire 4-1 Xu Si
Judd Trump 4-3 Elliot Slessor
Quarter-Final draw: (Picks in bold)
Neil Robertson Vs Xiao Guodong
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs John Higgins
Ricky Walden Vs Cao Yupeng
Judd Trump Vs Stephen Maguire
The first best-of-9 frames quarter-final sees Neil Robertson take on Xiao Guodong. Robertson looks back to top form in terms of his high scoring but has still had to battle in a couple of matches this week to come through and is now looking for his first ranking event semi-final since the 2016 European Masters. If Xiao plays as well as he can, then this will be a tough test for Robertson and certainly his most difficult match of the week so far. Xiao is scoring well and produced a brilliant clearance to overcome Marco Fu and that is by no means the first victory he has had against a top player this season. On top of that, Xiao won the last time these two met back in the 2016 English Open, and while Robertson will be favourite, it is no foregone conclusion to say he will run out the victor.
The headline act in the evening session sees Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins meet for the fourth time already this season in a big tournament and for the second year in a row at this stage of the Scottish Open. While Higgins was a winner 12 months ago, beating O'Sullivan 5-2 on the way to making the final, the Rocket has had his revenge since, edging the Scotsman out in the last 16 in Barnsley, thrashing him 6-0 in the Champion of Champions quarter-finals and then beating him again on the way to lifting the Shanghai Masters title. Higgins has looked improved this week compared with recent tournaments, scoring well for the most part on the way to the last eight. However, O'Sullivan is playing superbly at the moment and it is going to take a seriously good performance to topple him here in Glasgow as he has just picked up from where he left off after lifting the trophy last week in York.
Ricky Walden and Cao Yupeng meanwhile is certainly a match that presents a big opportunity for both players. Cao reached his first ranking event semi-final this season at the European Masters and has played excellent snooker that currently has him sat 24th on the one year money list, a vast improvement on his two year ranking that brought him to Glasgow as the 66th seed. Walden meanwhile is making the steady climb back to form, following up a run to the last 16 in the Northern Ireland Open and a last 16 appearance at the UK Championships by making his first ranking event quarter-final in 14 months having suffered with back problems. He is certainly a far cry from the player who lost out 4-0 to Cao in the Riga Masters qualifiers, before going on to lose 5-0 in his China Championship qualifier in the same week. A victory here for Walden would be another big step in the right direction and take him into his first ranking semi-final since making the final of the 2016 China Open, his second in consecutive weeks - a spell of snooker which provides a much better demonstration of what Walden is capable of.
At the bottom of the draw we have another excellent match-up between Judd Trump and Stephen Maguire. Maguire has really come back to form in 2017, firstly having to come through the World Championship qualifiers, right through to the quarter-finals in Sheffield. That was followed up with a ranking final against Ryan Day in Riga and despite going quiet again for a while after that, he was brilliant in reaching the UK Championship semi-finals before running into O'Sullivan and now he will be hoping to make that back-to-back semi-finals. Standing in his way is a man in Trump who has beaten Maguire 5-0 recently at the Shanghai Masters and 6-0 in the 2016 China Open. Aside from those last couple of meetings, the head to head between these two is fairly even and they are both playing well this week. If Maguire performs how he did against Yan Bingtao in the last 32 then he will certainly take some stopping, and after Trump was pushed all the way in a late night last 16 finish, that may give the Scotsman a slight advantage here in front of his home fans.
Whatever way you look at it, these are four fantastic looking quarter-finals and a mouth watering Friday of action awaits in Glasgow.
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