Mark Selby and Judd Trump have joined the last eight cast as the European Masters nears the business end in Bucharest.
The inaugural ranking event in Romania boasts a stellar line-up with the quarter-finals to look forward to on Friday.
World champion Selby easily dispatched of an out-of-sorts Barry Hawkins on Thursday, recording a comfortable 4-0 victory over his fellow Englishman.
Selby will be a strong favourite with the best sports gambling sites to continue his run to at least the last four as the world no.1 comes up against the lowest ranked player remaining in the draw, Alfie Burden.
While the Paul Hunter Classic champion will be featuring in his 49th ranking event quarter-final, by contrast 39 year-old Burden is embarking on this stage for only the second time in his career.
Meanwhile, Trump also enjoyed an easy whitewash win in his last 16 tie with Andrew Higginson.
Trump was in one of his better scoring moods, compiling runs of 118, 94 and 61 as he routed Higginson in less than an hour to set up an exciting clash with John Higgins.
The pair, of course, are well remembered for their epic 2011 World Championship final and Higgins has generally held the upper hand in their duels aside from that Crucible triumph.
That said, 27 year-old Trump has in fact won the duo’s previous three encounters which have been contested over the best of seven frames.
The bottom half of the draw also consists of an array of proven winners.
Three-time 6 Red world champion Mark Davis came from 3-2 down to deny Liang Wenbo in a decider.
The 44 year-old coolly compiled a 107 century break in the final frame, earning the Englishman a tie with the ‘Rocket’ Ronnie O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan, despite having not played for most of the season so far, remains the bookies favourite to go on and land the title on Sunday.
The final quarter-final tie sees Neil Robertson take on Anthony McGill in a battle of this campaign’s initial two ranking event champions.
Scotland’s McGill edged his countryman Scott Donaldson 4-3 after a grueling affair as he seeks to add to his Indian Open triumph earlier this term.
The crowd at the Circul Globus has been steadily rising as the week has progressed so it’ll be interesting to see if there can be a packed auditorium to look forward to over the weekend.
The arena is certainly spectacular and a capacity crowd would surely present an electric atmosphere for the players to thrive upon.
Nothing against the other competitors, but the prospect of a semi-final quartet of Selby versus Trump along with O’Sullivan and Robertson does leave the snooker palate somewhat salivating.
The action continues to unfold on Eurosport Player and selected betting websites.
