GWENT’S Mark Williams won the battle of the home favourites to seal his place in the last 16 of the BetVictor Welsh Open snooker.
The Cwm potter beat Neath’s Jamie Jones 4-2 at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena tonight to set up a clash with Judd Trump on Thursday afternoon.
Jones’ fellow Neath star Michael White was also knocked out tonight as he went down 4-1 against Stuart Bingham.
Also tonight John Higgins whitewashed Liang Wenbo 4-0.
Earlier in the day Carmarthen’s Matthew Stevens ended a 12-year losing streak against Ronnie O’Sullivan with a 4-3 win.
Stevens will take on Marco Fu on Thursday night.
Neil Robertson and Mark Selby also battled their way into the last 16 today.
Robertson came from 2-1 down to beat Jamie Cope 4-3, making breaks of 94 and 113 to get to 3-3 then edging a tense decider 63-23.
World champion Selby needed two hours and 56 minutes to beat Peter Ebdon 4-3.
Selby led 3-1 after breaks of 65, 56 and 91, but Ebdon recovered to 3-3 and had a chance in the decider but missed a tricky black on 35 with three reds left.
Selby eventually cleared from yellow to pink to improve his chances of back-to-back ranking titles having won the recent German Masters.
Michael Georgiou reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time by beating Graeme Dott 4-3.
Londoner Georgiou, who came through Q School last year, let slip a 3-1 lead, but then came from 33-0 down in the decider to win it with runs of 29 and 32.
"It's an amazing feeling. I went into the match confident and I squeezed through in the end," said Georgiou.
Ricky Walden saw off Martin Gould 4-2 despite a top break of just 43.
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