Pukka Pies UK Snooker Championship
Venue: Telford International Centre Dates: Sat 5 Dec to Sun 13 Dec Coverage: Live on BBC Two, BBC Red Button and BBC Sport website.
Video - Higgins wins tight decider 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.  | 606: DEBATE |
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.
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