Judd Trump beat fellow Englishman Tom Ford 4-2 to advance to the last eight of the World Grand Prix in Cheltenham on Wednesday.
A tight affair in which the first four frames were shared, the Masters champion eventually pulled away at the right time with breaks of 55 and 100.
Trump, the World Grand Prix champion in 2015, will face either world number one Mark Selby or Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham in the next round.
Countryman Barry Hawkins also progressed to the quarter-finals at Cheltenham Racecourse after a 4-1 victory over Marco Fu.
The latter failed to build on his surprise defeat of pre-tournament favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan on Monday as he bowed out in disappointing fashion to the 2017 World Grand Prix champion.
Meanwhile, there is guaranteed to be at least one Chinese competitor in the semi-finals after Xiao Guodong and Yuan Sijun set up an intriguing quarter-final tie against one another.
The pair of housemates both overcame higher ranked opposition to build on the momentum gained from their respective defeats of world champions Neil Robertson and Mark Williams earlier this week.
On this occasion, teenager Yuan secured an impressive 4-2 success over five-time ranking event winner Stephen Maguire while 29 year-old Xiao Guodong ousted Mark Davis 4-1.
Earlier on day three in Cheltenham, the last 32 reached its conclusion with the likes of Selby and Kyren Wilson emerging with early wins.
World number one Selby knocked in a break of 76 and a couple of 63s in beating Shaun Murphy 4-1.
Wilson had a much more difficult time of it as the recent German Masters champion struggled from 3-0 down to deny Matthew Stevens in a tense decider.
Saengkham, meanwhile, prolonged the recent misery of John Higgins as he inflicted a 4-2 loss on the four-time world champion.
David Gilbert was the day’s other winner, responding well to his failure in Berlin on Sunday with a resounding 4-0 triumph over Yan Bingtao.
On Thursday, the last 16 will finish before the opening couple of encounters in the quarter-finals take place in the evening session.
The World Grand Prix features the top 32 players on the one-year rankings list and is the first of three tournaments that makes up the inaugural Coral Cup series.
