Scotland's Stephen Maguire dumped world champion Zhao Xintong out of the Wuhan Open 2025 in a tense conclusion to book his place in the last 16.
Maguire trailed 4-3 in the best-of-nine frame encounter, but levelled with a break of 119 and then scrapped his way to a 65-61 win in the decider to book a fourth round clash with Si Jiahui, a 5-3 winner over Welshman Jackson Page.
Defending champion Xiao Guodong remains on track after a 5-3 victory over England’s David Grace, and will now take on another Englishman, Matthew Selt, who needed just six frames to beat Marco Fu.
Mark Williams was another comfortable winner, making breaks of 129 and 95 on his way to a 5-1 win against Joe O’Connor to line up a showdown with a fellow former world champion Mark Selby, following his 5-2 dismissal of David Gilbert.
World number one Judd Trump is also very much alive as a result of his 5-3 victory over compatriot Jack Lisowski, who made a break of 133 to win the first frame, but saw his opponent record two centuries in response.
Trump will face Gary Wilson, who saw off Shaun Murphy 5-3, while Stan Moody’s reward for a 5-1 drubbing of Zhou Yuelong is a fourth round date with Barry Hawkins, a 5-3 winner over Jak Jones.
John Higgins beat Yuan Sijun 5-3 and Tom Ford dropped just one frame against Reanne Evans, and the pair will now meet with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.
Zhang Anda whitewashed Chang Bingyu on his way to a last 16 clash with Ireland’s Aaron Hill, whose final-frame break of 77 was enough to edge past Lei Peifan, while Northern Irish counterpart Mark Allen will go head-to-head with Thepchaiya Un-Nooh after the pair dispensed with Hossein Vafaei and Scott Donaldson respectively.
