Ronnie O’Sullivan was in dominant form and John Higgins won a final-frame decider to set up an enticing quarter-final with Mark Williams as snooker’s legendary ‘Class of 92’ stars thrilled again at the World Championship.
Williams, 50, and 49-year-olds O’Sullivan and Higgins have won 14 world titles between them – and they each stayed on course for further glory on a super Saturday at the Crucible.
Welshman Williams beat Iran’s Hossein Vafaei 13-10 to become the oldest quarter-finalist in 15 years, since Steve Davis reached the last eight in 2010 at the age of 52.
Williams then said he wanted Higgins to join him in the next phase, and the Scot, after blowing match-winning chances in the 23rd and 24th frames, held his nerve in a late-night decider to triumph 13-12 against Xiao Guodong.
O’Sullivan is also in a great place to join Williams and Higgins in the quarter-finals as he raced to a 6-2 lead against China’s Pang Junxu in the first session of their last-16 match.
‘The Rocket’ is aiming to become the first man in the modern era to win the event eight times and his match with qualifier Pang, who is ranked 27th in the world, resumes at 14:30 BST on Sunday.
O’Sullivan had won the closing five frames in his 10-4 success over Ali Carter in round one and raced into a 4-0 lead against Pang, aided by breaks of 58, 91, 50 and 63.
Pang made a 119 break in frame five, but that was his only run above 50. He had a chance to end only two frames behind, but another miss in frame eight helped O’Sullivan inch a step closer to the winning target in the best-of-25-frame match.
O’Sullivan, Higgins and Williams all joined the professional tour in 1992, and 33 years later they remain formidable competitors on the biggest stages. With nine days remaining of this championship, they remain in the trophy hunt yet again.
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