Ronnie OSullivan and John Higgins through to quarters

World number one Ronnie O'Sullivan and world champion John Higgins both advanced to the last eight of the UK Championship in Telford.

Higgins survived a fine fightback from Australian Neil Robertson to win 9-8, while O'Sullivan beat Peter Ebdon 9-3.

Elsewhere, defending champion Shaun Murphy was soundly beaten 9-3 by China's Ding Junhui, who joins countryman Liang Wenbo in the quarters.

Wenbo defeated Mark King 9-2, while Stephen Maguire beat Stuart Bingham.

Mark Selby defeated Stephen Hendry 9-5 to also book his place in the last eight while Ali Carter progressed with a comfortable 9-5 victory over Stephen Lee.

Carter will now play Ding in the last eight of the competition. Ding was dominant throughout taking a 6-2 lead into the evening session before closing the game out with a break of 113.

Mark Williams surrendered the final two frames of his match with Peter Lines, losing 9-8 having held the advantage at 8-7.

Lines - who equalled his best-ever ranking performances by reaching the quarter-finals, will now play Maguire.

Maguire wasted little time in booking his place in the next round of the competition with the Scotsman cruising past Bingham.

"I've had a few good UK tournaments. I've won it, been to the final and got to the semi-finals last year, so I've been quite consistent here," said the 28-year-old.
O'Sullivan won the tournament in 1993, 1997, 2001 and 2007


"But I'm feeling good about my game and if I win my next match I've got a day off to look forward too."

Higgins will face Wenbo in the next round having held off the challenge of the Grand Prix champion.

The win was a relief for Higgins, who had led 4-1 before Robertson fought back to leave the match finely balanced at the end of the first session at 5-3 to the Scot.

Robertson opened the final session with breaks of 127 and 78 to level things up, but Higgins again pulled away to lead 8-6.

The tension seemed to get the better of Higgins as a couple of careless errors allowed Robertson to come back yet again, but he held his nerve at the vital moment to seal his progress with a gritty break.

It was revenge for Higgins, who lost out to Robertson 6-5 in a classic semi-final of October's Grand Prix which went to down to the final black.

Four-time champion O'Sullivan held a four frame advantage over Ebdon leading 6-2 after the first session of their UK Championship second round encounter.

O'Sullivan raced into a 4-0 lead, before Ebdon dug in to make it 5-2. But a 118 break left O'Sullivan needing three more frames for victory.

A break of 76 saw O'Sullivan stretch his lead to 7-2, before Ebdon came out on top in a safety exchange to pull one back.

O'Sullivan then strolled through the next frame before finally ending Ebdon's challenge. He will now face Selby in the next round.