The World Open quarter-finals will take place on Friday with eight players still in contention for the fifth ranking event of the season in Yushan.
Judd Trump kept his hopes alive of a second title in China this term after a gritty 5-4 defeat of Joe Perry in the last 16 on Thursday.
Like an earlier contest against Sam Craigie, Trump raced into a 3-0 lead only to be pegged back by his fellow Englishman.
A brace of centuries from Perry sent him in front but Trump clinched two tense final frames to narrowly advance.
The world champion will take on Michael Holt next after the latter disappointed the home fans by overcoming Ding Junhui.
It had looked as though this might finally be the tournament when Ding’s form returned but Holt took advantage of a scrappy affair to easily win 5-1.
Interestingly, Trump and Holt have played each other ten times in the past and it’s currently tied at five victories apiece – although the world number one has triumphed in their last two encounters.
The performance of the week, and possibly the season so far, came from Stuart Bingham as he dispatched of recent English Open champion Mark Selby with a remarkable display of power scoring.
The former world champion trailed Selby 2-0 early on but rattled in runs of 108, 97, 114, 104, and 117 in a devastating pounding of the pockets.
His World Open quarter-finals opponent will be John Higgins, who like Trump emerged from a tight affair against fellow Scot Graeme Dott with a close 5-4 success.
Bingham will have to produce another strong outing because he has a terrible record against Higgins, with only three victories from 15 attempts.
The pair last crossed paths in last season’s World Championship, when Higgins prevailed in the second round en route to reaching the final for a third time in a row in Sheffield.
The century machine, @Stuart__Bingham #WorldOpen pic.twitter.com/lJvExA5sE0
— World Snooker (@WorldSnooker) October 31, 2019
In the bottom half of the draw there’s David Gilbert, who is back in the business end of proceedings again in Yushan after his exploits in the same event last year.
On that occasion, the “Angry Farmer” let slip a 9-5 advantage over Mark Williams to eventually lose out to the Welshman in a final that lasted the distance.
Gilbert has since lost in two more title deciders but, to his credit, he continues to battle on and hasn’t let the disappointments of those near misses get him down.
Another notable scalp in the form of Mark Allen ensured his presence in the World Open quarter-finals, where he’ll take on Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.
The latter is on a hot streak at the moment following his success in the Haining Open, an invitational tournament, last weekend.
As professionals, Gilbert and Un-Nooh have clashed on only one previous occasion, when the Englishman reached his maiden final at the International Championship four years ago.
The remaining fixture features the only Chinese competitor left in the hunt.
Zhou Yuelong will take on Kyren Wilson after the duo comfortably outplayed Ali Carter and Jack Lisowski in the last 16.
These two have also only played each other once before, in the Champion of Champions in 2015 when Wilson triumphed with a 6-3 scoreline.
Zhou was a far less experienced player then, though, and reaching the last four could set himself up to launch his own serious bid for a maiden trophy too.
For Zhou, Gilbert, and Holt, winning this competition would not only guarantee a tidy winner’s cheque worth £150,000 but also a potentially lucrative ticket into the Champion of Champions later this month in Coventry.