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Amid all the talk of Chinese domination, the Class of 92 show no sign of giving way just yet. On the eighth day of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins all rolled back the years.
There have been plenty of shocks so far, but the three legends of the game are made of tough stuff. Williams is 50, the other two 49, but the class remains. They have won 14 world titles between them and who would bet against that figure rising to 15 a week on Monday?
Higgins had to come back late on Saturday night to finish his gruelling last-16 tie with the improving Xiao Guodong, leading 12-11 when they ran out of time at the end of their morning session. Xiao won the first when they resumed to force a decider, but Higgins held his nerve to win 13-12 and take him into a quarter-final against Williams.
The Scot is now the world No 3 after a fine season, which included winning the prestigious Tour Championship two weeks before this event, and said: “The three sessions – I really enjoyed them because it’s an unbelievable venue to play in. You play some good minutes, the pressure is on you and the crowd are all getting involved. You can’t replicate playing here.
“Winning some of the big events has given me an inner belief I can get over the line. Even going into that last frame there. Am I a believer again? Yes.”
On facing Williams, he said: “It’s incredible [that we are still going], and you throw Ronnie into the mix as well. Three special players, you have got to say that. I don’t care if I’m calling myself that a little bit.”
Williams secured his place in the quarter-finals with a 13-10 victory against Hossein Vafaei, winning four out of seven frames having led 9-7 overnight.
O’Sullivan soon took control against the Chinese Pang Junxu on Saturday afternoon, finishing the first session of their last-16 match with a 6-2 lead.
The seven-time winner claimed each of the first four frames, with breaks of 58, 91, 50 and 63, before Pang, the world No 27, got off the mark by registering the contest’s first century break, making a 119. The Rocket swiftly hit back to secure frame six and after Pang took frame seven, O’Sullivan concluded the session by re-establishing a four-frame advantage to take into Sunday’s second session.
Williams, three times the champion at the Crucible, advanced to the quarter-finals as he saw off Vafaei 13-10.
The Welshman extended his two-frame lead at the start of the session to 11-8, but Vafaei took the next two frames to get within one of level pegging before Williams wrapped things up, finishing with a break of 115.
The marathon clash between Higgins and Xiao could not be decided inside three sessions. Facing a race against time to complete the match before the afternoon action commenced, four-time Crucible champion Higgins won two frames in a row after the mid-session interval but was frustrated by Xiao with the winning post in sight, as the world No 14 battled back to make it 12-11 just over four hours after the session began.
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There had been nothing to separate them after each of the first two sessions, which finished at 4-4 and 8-8 respectively.
And the third session followed the same pattern as no player led by more than one frame until after the interval on Saturday, with Higgins bouncing back from losing the opener by taking the next two before Xiao levelled at 10-10, winning a mammoth frame that lasted more than an hour.
The Scot came out firing after the interval, making a break of 84 to take the 21st frame – his 2,000th at the Crucible. With time running out in the session, Higgins took the next frame despite missing a fairly straightforward pink at 65-0 up to open the door for Xiao, who was unable to amass the points he needed to overturn his deficit. Requiring one more frame to win the match at 1.40pm, the 49-year-old appeared on course for victory but let Xiao back in and was punished.
On Saturday evening, Luca Brecel evoked memories of his amazing triumph two years ago when he produced a display of superb attacking snooker to take a 7-1 lead against Ding Junhui. The Belgian is in danger of losing his top-16 ranking, having performed poorly ever since winning the Crucible crown, but was in irresistible form, leaving Ding helpless.
Zhao Xintong, tipped by many to win the world championship, possibly this year, leads his Chinese compatriot Lei Peifan 10-6 after winning the morning session 5-3. Chris Wakelin, who has already beaten two fancied players in Neil Robertson and Mark Allen, lies in wait for the winner in the quarter-finals.
