Ryan Day, one of the highest ranked players competing in the Gibraltar Open, won his opening three fixtures on Saturday to move into the last 16 at the Victoria Stadium.
The Welshman compiled a hat-trick of centuries, one in each tie, as he dispatched of Xu Si, Oliver Brown, and Martin O’Donnell to reach the fourth round.
Day, who won the Riga Masters at the outset of the campaign under a similar best of seven format, will face China’s Fang Xiongman next with a quarter-final berth at stake.
Fang ended the hopes of Brandon Sargeant, one of five amateurs who came through the preliminaries to reach the last 32, in a decider.
Meanwhile, Joe Perry secured three 4-1 victories against Adam Duffy, Anthony Hamilton, and Michael Wild to ensure his involvement in Sunday’s final day of action.
The veteran Englishman will face countryman Jack Lisowski after the latter fought back from a snookers required stage in the seventh frame of his contest with Soheil Vahedi to prevail on the final black.
Perry and Lisowski, along with Chinese cueist Cao Yupeng, who qualified through to the fourth round on Friday, can still break into the top 16 in the one-year rankings with victory this weekend.
A triumph would see any one of the trio qualify for the lucrative Players Championship in Wales later this month at the expense of Graeme Dott.
Elsewhere, Chinese duo Tian Pengfei and Zhang Yong booked a meeting with one another after wins over Aditya Mehta and Zhao Xintong respectively.
Finally, Alfie Burden overcame Snooker Shoot Out champion Michael Georgiou to move to within a round of his best ever performance in a ranking event.
The 41 year-old can match his run to the last eight in Gibraltar twelve months ago if he can beat next opponent Scott Donaldson, who compiled a tournament-high break of 140 in his first round defeat of Duane Jones.
Stuart Bingham, Kyren Wilson, and Anthony McGill all previously reached the final stages and, as members of the top 16, will arguably be the favourites to land the title.
However, in the sprint best of seven format, it would be foolish to write off any of the remaining 16 players with £25,000 on offer for any player who can last the distance.
