The China Championship draw has reached the last 16 stage after the field was whittled down further on Wednesday in Guangzhou.
Defending champion Mark Selby remains in the hunt for a repeat success but several big names crashed out on the third day of action in China.
Neil Robertson suffered a surprising 5-1 defeat to Matthew Selt, Mark Allen was pipped to the post in a decider by Noppon Saengkham, and Kyren Wilson lost 5-3 to Iran’s Hossein Vafaei.
The likes of Riga Masters champion Yan Bingtao, Jack Lisowski, and Stephen Maguire all exited in the last 32 as well.
Yan crashed out on home soil against Chris Wakelin while China Open runner-up Lisowski fell to Anthony McGill – the Scot putting up a rare challenge in a ranking event after a dismal spell on the circuit.
World Cup and Six Red World Championship winner Maguire’s demise was a little less of a shock as he was downed by the always dangerous Joe Perry.
Several other marquee names are still in with a shot of glory, though, with Selby recording a relatively comfortable 5-2 win against Martin Gould.
World champion Judd Trump remained on course for a second successive ranking tournament victory in China.
The International Championship winner raced through his contest with Zhou Yuelong courtesy of a whitewash thrashing.
Shaun Murphy, the man Trump beat in the title decider in Daqing and who subsequently lost in the final of this month’s Shanghai Masters, continued his fine run of form with a 5-3 triumph over Ryan Day.
Another star to make it through was Mark Williams – the Welshman holding off a spirited fight back from Luo Honghao to eventually prevail 5-3.
Williams will face Luca Brecel in the next round after the 2017 champion, needing a strong week to avoid dropping out of the top 16 in the world rankings, easily routed Mark Joyce.
Meanwhile, China’s Zhao Xintong backed up his standout win against Ding Junhui with another over a countryman – this time Xiao Goudong.
The 22 year-old’s reward is a meeting with Barry Hawkins while John Higgins, David Gilbert, and Kurt Maflin all still feature in the China Championship draw as well.
Live coverage continues on Eurosport.
Click here to view the China Championship draw (Times: CET)
🗣️ “Everyone knows I’d love to win a tournament”
Crucible semi finalist David Gilbert is into the last 16 of the Evergrande China Championship.
A 5-2 win over Matthew Stevens gets him there #ChinaChampionship pic.twitter.com/6psgUwIWy1
— World Snooker (@WorldSnooker) September 25, 2019
