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Mike Chan

Only eight players are left standing at the Crucible Theatre after the conclusion of the second round of the World Snooker Championship, and chances are a new winner might emerge next Monday.
Four current and former champions, John Higgins, Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy and reigning champion Zhao Xintong, are all in the upper half of the draw while four others who have yet to win a world title are on the other side of the bracket.
Picking up where he left off at the Crucible Theatre on Tuesday morning in Sheffield, world No 4 Zhao continued his title defence against 2005 champion Murphy.
The Chinese snooker star, however, saw his early 3-0 lead vanish just as easily. Both players made mistakes galore but world No 8 Murphy reeled off five straight frames to turn the tie around.
While Zhao was battling Murphy, Mark Allen and Barry Hawkins, who combined have made 11 quarter-finals-and-beyond appearances in Sheffield, battled for a lead on the next table. A two-time semi-finalist, Allen twice found himself in front in the first session, but it was Hawkins, whose best result was reaching the final in 2013, who claimed a 5-3 lead.
Also in the bottom half of the draw is Wu Yize from China, who outlasted four-time winner Mark Selby 13-11 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.

Leading 9-7 heading into the final session, the world No 10 placed himself within one frame of a historic win after splitting the first four frames with the former world No 1.
Selby, who was eliminated in the first round in 2024 and 2025, extended the match by winning back-to-back frames, but a break of 53 was enough for Wu to seal his first win over the Englishman in seven meetings.
“I’m very happy to reach the final eight at the Crucible for the first time; it’s also my first race-to-13 win, and first win over Mark – that’s quite a lot of breakthroughs for me,” the 22-year-old Wu said. “The match was tough and tiring. I had a long defensive stretch with Selby in almost every frame.
“I am delighted that I was able to go toe-to-toe with him defensively, it’s the first time I felt I had played such a good match on defence. It’s a shame that I had a lot of problems with scoring, which is indeed his strongest point. He can always limit the scoring ability of some offensive players.”
Gansu native Wu added that he will “enjoy my next match”, where he faces Hossein Vafaei, after the Iranian stunned world No 1 Judd Trump 13-12 to reach the last eight for the first time.
Facing a 10-7 deficit, Vafaei, who made a fairy tale run to the semi-finals of the UK Championship in 2024, reeled in four frames on the trot to seize his first lead since midway through the second session.
Trump, the 2019 champion, reclaimed his lead at 12-11, but Vafaei responded with breaks of 106 and 91 to seal a sensational win over his close friend.

“I wasn’t nervous,” Vafaei, the world No 32, said. “I enjoyed every minute. I was born for this kind of situation. If I don’t face this kind of situation, I will never become a world champion. Every day the Crucible trophy is living in my head rent-free.
“It was a really tough match, and we were pushing each other all the way. I love Judd. We are good friends, and I respect him a lot. He told me that I need to believe I can win it. I don’t care who I’m going to play. They have to care who they are playing [against].”
In the upper part of the draw, Higgins came from behind to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 13-12 to win the battle of the “Class of 75”.
From 9-4 down, four-time champion Higgins won nine of the next 12 frames to edge past seven-time winner O’Sullivan, dooming the world No 12 to his career-first back-to-back seasons without a trophy.
Higgins faces Robertson in the day’s other quarter-finals.


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Zhao Xintong (left) beat his idol Ding Junhui 13-9 in the second round. Photo: Xinhua

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Other Sport

Reigning champion Zhao down 5-3 to Shaun Murphy in tough upper half of the draw, while Wu faces Hossein Vafaei, who stunned Judd Trump


Reigning champion Zhao down 5-3 to Shaun Murphy in tough upper half of the draw, while Wu faces Hossein Vafaei, who stunned Judd Trump.


World Snooker Championship

Ronnie O'Sullivan

Judd Trump

Neil Robertson

World Snooker Championship quarters: Zhao Xintong trails, Wu Yize to face Trump conqueror

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Reigning champion Zhao down 5-3 to Shaun Murphy in tough upper half of the draw, while Wu faces Hossein Vafaei, who stunned Judd Trump

Reigning champion Zhao down 5-3 to Shaun Murphy in tough upper half of the draw, while Wu faces Hossein Vafaei, who stunned Judd Trump