Liang edges out Swail in classic

Liang Wenbo became the first Chinese player to reach the quarter-finals at The Crucible as he won 13-12 in an enthralling match over Joe Swail.

Swail fought back from 12-8 behind to force a deciding frame, but a missed brown with the rest allowed Liang, 21, to clinch a classic encounter.

Liang celebrated prematurely in the 23rd, thinking he had won the match.

But Swail pinched the frame to keep the match alive and continue his fightback, only to fall at the final hurdle.

Liang, who will face tournament favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan in the next round, punched the air with delight after potting the blue to go 59-44 ahead in the 23rd frame, with only pink and black remaining.

But he went on to miss a difficult pink and Swail snookered him and went on to win the frame and close to just one frame behind.

A break of 66 eventually proved enough to make it 12-12 and set up what must go down as the most thrilling frame of the tournament so far.

Both players had chance after chance in a desperately tense atmosphere.

Liang led by 27 points with only 27 left on the table, only to again fail to get out of a snooker by playing cushion first.

He hit the yellow direct at the second time of asking, but Swail was clearly unhappy at the way the balls had been replaced.

Read Full Match Report At The BBC

Frame scores (Liang first): 104-0 (84) 110-0 (90) 70-61 43-64 60-12 73-15 78-0 (78) 1-69 5-94 (71) 60-52 6-56 0-85 (66) 63-61 (Liang 56, Swail 61) 0-113 (71) 80-16 (58) 9-99 (92) 84-19 (51) 1-69 (65) 131-1 (123) 74-19 (60) 0-133 (133) 31-105 (105) 59-63 34-74 79-53