2005 world champion, Shaun Murphy, was in tremendous form as he became the first player to reach the quarter-finals, defeating Xiao Guodong 13-3, winning the match in a session to spare. Murphy had started the match in excellent fashion, winning the first five frames, before Xiao got himself back into the match by winning the next two frames, before Murphy closed out the session to lead 6-2 going into Friday afternoon's session. After Murphy won the first two to go further ahead at 8-2, Xiao won the third and which turned out to be the final frame that he won, as Murphy closed out the match by winning four successive frames, making breaks of 103, 115, and another 103 to ensure that there would no evening session and Murphy could return home for a few days and put his feet up as he watched the others in his practice room.
Kyren Wilson, champion in 2024, began the second session of his clash with Anterim's Mark Allen just as he had ended the first, winning the first two frames, including a break of 112, to take a 6-5 lead, before Allen then claimed the next two to lead 7-6, Wilson then levelled with a break of 65, before Allen took the final two frames of the session, which included a high break of 140, and he leads 9-7 heading into their third and final session, beginning at 10am on Saturday morning.
A huge television audience would have been watching in China to see defending champion Zhao Xintong take on Chinese snooker's greatest player, Ding Junhui in a blockbuster clash and which sees both players level at 4-4 heading into Saturday afternoon's second session. In a session which ebbed and flowed, after Ding had gone 3-2 up, Zhao took advantage of errors which crept into his game to lead 4-3 before Ding took advantage after Zhao had somehow missed a routine black off the spot to clear up and make it all-square.
Mark Williams has it all to do after a particularly poor display on Friday evening saw him win only one of the eight frames on offer, while Barry Hawkins took firm control of the match and now requires only three frames in their concluding session, which takes place on Saturday evening.
Three other quarter-final matches will get under way on Saturday, with the highlight, of course, being a gigantic 'Class of 92' clash between Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins; while on Saturday morning, Chris Wakelin takes on the 'Thunder from Down Under' in Neil Robertson, hoping for a repeat of his success over the Australian in the first round of last year's championship; finally, Judd Trump will be hoping to get off to a good start against Hossein Vafaei, who looked in excellent form in his 10-3 demolition of top 16 seed Si Jiahui.
ORDER OF PLAY
SATURDAY 25th APRIL 2026
10AM
Chris Wakelin v Neil Robertson
Kyren Wilson (7) v (9) Mark Allen
2.30PM
Zhao Xintong (4) v (4) Ding Junhui
Hossein Vafaei v Judd Trump
7PM
John Higgins v Ronnie O'Sullivan
Barry Hawkins (10) v (6) Mark J. Williams
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