David Gilbert will be left sitting and waiting to see if he will be the 16th and final seed for this year's World Championships after suffering a 6-3 loss to Scott Donaldson in the last 32 of the China Open.
The loss for Gilbert leaves him lying 16th on the provisional World Championship seedings list and confirms the automatic qualification for the 15 players ahead of him. After falling 3-1 adrift at the mid-session interval, Gilbert was able to claw it back to 3-2 but was unable to draw level at any point as Donaldson backed up victory over Joe Perry in the last 64, with another good win.
However, Gilbert will only be overtaken if any of the players in reach below him go on to win the event. That is after Ali Carter suffered a 6-4 loss to Sam Craigie in the last 32, with Carter going into the round as the only player that could possibly catch Gilbert without winning the tournament. Craigie did Gilbert an equally big favour on Tuesday by defeating Ryan Day and victory over Carter now means he has equalled his best ever ranking display of the last 16, something he also achieved in the recent Indian Open. Craigie delivered a top break of 136 on the way to victory.
The high break of the day and the week was made by Stuart Bingham though as history scarily repeated itself in his match against Peter Ebdon. A year earlier in the same round of this same competition against Ricky Walden, Bingham produced a 147 maximum break on the way to winning 6-5 and today he delivered another 147 maximum break in the seventh frame of his eventual 6-3 win over Peter Ebdon. The break also stopped the rot of three frames in a row for Ebdon, which saw Bingham's early 3-0 lead evaporate. A vital eighth frame went the way of Bingham though after the maximum and he would comfortably go on to complete the win.
Bingham will now face Rod Lawler in the last 16 as he sent another of the top 16 stars home in Kyren Wilson. The win gives Lawler another enormous boost in terms of his tour survival and almost certainly now means that he will regain a new two-year tour card via the one-year list at the end of the season. He clinched a 6-4 victory over Wilson on the colours in frame ten, despite the favourite having a match high break of 136 as he fought his way back into the match after the interval.
The third and final top 16 player to lose on the day was Stephen Maguire as he lost the all-Scottish clash with Anthony McGill 6-3. McGill managed to make the arena on time for this one after the early drama of his first round clash for Nigel Bond and has now delivered one of his best performances in what has been a slow season for him.
Luca Brecel came through a tight match with Michael Holt 6-4 to give him another chance to break his duck of not making a ranking event quarter-final since November 2017. Holt led 2-1 early on but soon fell 4-2 adrift. He fought back to 4-3 but lost a crucial eight frame after Brecel fluked the penultimate red coming out of a snooker and proceeded to clear up and move 5-3 ahead. A match high 132 break in the ninth kept Holt in the tie, but missed opportunities in the tenth cost him as Brecel did enough to move on.
Tournament favourite Neil Robertson had too fight back from 3-1 down, rattling off five straight frames against China's Mei Xiwen to eventually come out a 6-3 winner with a high break of 141 in the process. Jack Lisowski was the fourth top 16 player to survive and make the last 16 after winning all of the last three frames of his 6-3 victory against Gerard Greene.
Last 32 results:
Liang Wenbo 6-5 Craig Steadman
Sam Craigie 6-4 Ali Carter
Neil Robertson 6-3 Mei Xiwen
Lu Ning 6-2 Mark King
Alan McManus 6-0 Stuart Carrington
Anthony McGill 6-3 Stephen Maguire
Luca Brecel 6-4 Michael Holt
Hossein Vafei 6-3 Joe O'Connor
Li Hang 6-4 Robbie Williams
Jack Lisowski 6-3 Gerard Greene
Stuart Bingham 6-3 Peter Ebdon
Rod Lawler 6-4 Kyren Wilson
Lu Haotian 6-2 James Wattana
Ben Woollaston 6-3 Andrew Higginson
Scott Donaldson 6-3 David Gilbert
Ricky Walden 6-1 Ken Doherty
Last 16 draw: (Picks in bold)
Liang Wenbo Vs Sam Craigie
Neil Robertson Vs Lu Ning
Anthony McGill Vs Alan McManus
Luca Brecel Vs Hossein Vafei
Jack Lisowski Vs Li Hang
Stuart Bingham Vs Rod Lawler
Lu Haotian Vs Ben Woollaston
Ricky Walden Vs Scott Donaldson
Liang Wenbo and Sam Craigie will be an interesting game at the top of the draw in the last 16 here. Liang has had a poor season and has fallen dramatically down the rankings outside of the top 32 but this week now presents a chance for him to get back in. He has had to fight hard this week beating Gary Wilson from 3-0 down in the last 64 before coming from 5-3 down to defeat Craig Steadman 6-5. Craigie meanwhile has equalled his best performance of the last 16, doing so for the third time overall and the second in just the last few months after his run in the Indian Open. His wins against Ryan Day and Ali Carter have both been very impressive and he looks to have really improved and found some confidence in the last two or three months. Craigie is certainly capable of picking up another big win here, while Liang could finally be coming back into some form and really push through the draw this week.
Neil Robertson is by far the tournament favourite after the host of big names that have exited the tournament. He was already one of the favourites this week after winning February's Welsh Open before making finals of the Players Championship and the Tour Championship, meaning he has made the final in the last three ranking events he played prior to Beijing. He had to fight harder today coming from 3-1 down against Mei Xiwen, but even then he still won with a couple of frames to spare. The most improved player in recent months offers him last 16 opposition though as he faces China's Lu Ning. Lu was a comfortable winner against Mark King after defeating Barry Hawkins in the last 64 so he is well capable of putting up a big fight here to Robertson. He recently made the Gibraltar Open semi-finals defeating the likes of Shaun Murphy, having also made the Indian Open quarter-finals with a win over Stuart Bingham and the UK Championship last 16 after a win against Luca Brecel. He will certainly offer a good challenge to Robertson, but the Australian may still be too strong.
Luca Brecel aims to finally reach another ranking quarter-final after a 16 month drought to the November 2017 Shanghai Masters as he faces Hossein Vafei in the last 16. Brecel did recently lose narrowly at the same stage at the Indian Open after a strong start and will certainly be conscious of his dry run of form though it feels like he is well overdue now after a 6-1 win over Sam Baird in the last 64 was followed by a nervy 6-4 triumph against Michael Holt. There was little between him and Holt in that game and there will be even less between him and Hossein. The Iranian is a former semi-finalist in this event going back to 2017, as well as reaching the semi-finals in the recent Welsh Open and starting off this week strongly with comfortable wins over Robert Milkins and Joe O'Connor. When he is playing well he certainly has the ability to find a way of defeating the top players, as he did against Mark Selby in that Welsh Open run and if Brecel is nervy about breaking this ranking duck, then Hossein will take full advantage.
Jack Lisowski has gone slightly under the radar so far this week with a 6-2 last 64 victory over John Astley and a 6-3 second round win over Gerard Greene but as one of only four top 16 players left in the competition he must fancy his chances of a big run this week as he takes on Li Hang. Li has opened up the week with victories over Zhou Yuelong and Robbie Williams but this should provide a much bigger test of one of the four remaining Chinese players in the tournament. If both players score as heavily as they are capable of then this could be a real treat, especially with Li aiming to make his second quarter-final in recent times after making that stage of the Indian Open recently, while Lisowski has had a slightly quieter spell and may also be grateful for a confidence boost going into the World Championships.
Stuart Bingham is a firm second favourite for this week after his win against Peter Ebdon which included a 147 break and now he will aim to take down another slow player when he faces Rod Lawler. Bingham whitewashed Elliot Slessor in round one before defeating Ebdon 6-3 and has already made four centuries in Beijing. He scored exceptionally well in his run to the final of the Welsh Open and his title win in Gibraltar so his quick start here is certainly a good omen. Lawler has had a big week too so far by playing himself right into a strong position to save his tour card after beating Thor Chuan Leong 6-2 before taking down Kyren Wilson, but as impressive as that win over Wilson may be, he will need to up his game even more to defeat Bingham.
Finally, former finalist Ricky Walden is the man that will aim to stop Scott Donaldson taking down another quality player and reaching his third quarter-final of the last two months. Donaldson reached the last eight at both the Welsh Open and the Indian Open and has started this week with a 6-4 victory against Joe Perry to end his hopes of automatic Crucible qualification, before a 6-3 win over David Gilbert has left him sweating. Walden meanwhile defeated promising wildcard Chang Bingyu in the last 64 6-4, before a 6-1 thrashing of Ken Doherty in the last 32. Walden's pedigree in China speaks for itself having previously won the Shanghai Masters, Wuxi Classic and the International Championship (his only three full ranking titles) as well as reaching the China Open final and reaching an Asian Tour event final. On paper this looks to be a really tough match to call, especially as their most recent meeting in this season's German Masters qualifiers saw Walden win 5-4 after coming from 3-0 down.
All eight last 16 ties will be played over the best-of-11 frames on Thursday over two sessions at 7am and 12.30pm UK time, with coverage continuing on Eurosport TV and the Eurosport Player.
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