Former world champion Judd Trump moved into the quarter-finals of this year’s competition as he finished off a comprehensive 13-7 win over 14th seed Tom Ford.
Trump, 34, came into this tournament as number two in the world with five ranking titles under his belt already this season, but he wants more.
“The Worlds is special and all the greats have managed to win it multiple times,” said Trump before the tournament started. “I don’t know when the prime is in snooker, but I feel I’m somewhere there or thereabouts.
“Unless I win here it’s a failure for me. If I go home from a tournament and I’ve not won, it’s a failure. It’s a horrible feeling losing and anything less than a win is not good enough.”
Trump will face an unseeded player in the last eight as he will be up against either Welshman Jak Jones or China’s Si Jiahui, ranked 23rd in the world but a player that reached the semi-finals in 2023.
Jones, 44th in the rankings, holds a 9-7 lead and that match resumes in Saturday’s afternoon session (14:30 BST).
Impressive Trump moves into last eight for 10th time
Nine of the 16 seeds have already been eliminated from this competition, but Trump has been in superb form as he has swept into the last eight for a 10th time.
On Friday Trump held a 6-2 advantage and extended that to 9-3, before ending the second session with an 11-5 lead, only needing two more frames for victory.
A break of 76 helped Ford win the opening frame of Saturday, before Trump moved to the brink with an excellent break of 107 – the 979th century of his career.
He missed out on his 980th shortly afterwards, but the break of 79 was enough to clinch the vistory.
Elsewhere, Scotland’s Stephen Maguire held a 5-3 advantage over England’s 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy and the pair shared the opening two frames on table one.
The last-16 matches are the best of 25, so the first to 13.
Later on, Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen, who could end the tournament as world number one, takes on Scotland’s four-time champion John Higgins in what promises to be one of the matches of the competition so far.
The evening session at 19:00 features the start of two last-16 matches as Joe O’Connor, winner over four-time champion Mark Selby in round one, takes on Kyren Wilson.
Stuart Bingham, a Crucible winner in 2015, faces fellow Englishman Jack Lisowski.
Daniel Miller is a sports fanatic who lives and breathes athletics. His coverage spans from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis for sports enthusiasts.
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