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