British Open

The supposedly random draw meant Tubs Murphy got turned over by John Higgins.

We may have dodged the bullet of a Carter-Bingham borefest, but tonight instead brings us Bingham-Maguire.

Maguire! 4 Bingham 3

Sunni Akani beat Polish professional Anton Kowalski 4-1. Rory Thor thundered to a 4-3 victory over Neil Robertson. Stan Moody, who turned 18 years old less than 2 weeks ago, beat Zhang Anda 4-3. Wins also for Selby, Gilbert and Jak Jones.

Misery Maguire is out.
Judd Trump dutifully saw him off 4-2.
Hoorah

Earlier today Mark Allen made a 147.

Sunny Akani's run ended with a decider. The mighty Thor ran into John Higgins and got whitewashed.

Judd Trump was beatable. He was so nervous about getting his landmark century that he failed to make a frame winning break in frames 3 and 4 and left Maguire a chance to clear up. Hendry made the point that the Maguire of the noughties who won the UK Championship twice would have got those clearances and won those frames. In frame 5 Maguire did remind Judd how to make a century with a fantastic 127, but in frame 6 with the scent of victory in his nostrils, Judd made a 78 break to put himself into the quarter final.

Gilbert squeezed through 4-3 against Lyu Haotian. Oliver Lines ended Stan Moody's dream and beat him 4-1. Jak Jones beat Luca 4-2.

Quarter Final Draw (edit):

Jak Jones v Oliver Lines
David Gilbert v Mark Selby
Judd Trump v Mark Allen
John Higgins v Elliot Slessor

Good to see Jak Jones advancing deep into more tournaments.
Last thing he needs is to be labelled a one tournament wonder.

Always good to see some of the lesser lights making it deep into tournaments. Both Jak Jones and indeed Kyren Wilson will want to kick on from their Crucible success.

John Higgins is first man into the semi finals after trouncing Elliot Slessor 5-1.

Selby looked smooth at 4-1, and less so when Gilbert levelled. Selby still got through.

Trump hit his big centuries target this evening, but trailed 3-1 at the mid-session.

Allen beat Trump 5-3 tonight to set up a Mark off.
Allen v Selby in the last four.