Australia’s Neil Roberston kept his form going as he reached the quarter-finals of snooker’s World Championship with a 13-9 victory over Jack Lisowski on Saturday.
Robertson, the 2010 world champion, already led 9-7 overnight and he wasted little time as breaks of 126, 87 and 70 saw him to a second-round success at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre in northern England.
In the 11 years since he won snooker’s biggest prize, he has reached the semi-finals of the tournament just once.
But Robertson came into this year’s edition in fine form after beating six-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in last month’s Tour Championship final.
“The Tour Championship was certainly the best I’ve ever performed in an event, certainly from start to finish,” he said.
“I’ve kept that momentum going into the first two rounds here, but the form and results don’t really matter – it’s all about what I do in my next match.”
The 39-year-old, one of just two players from outside Britain and Ireland to have been crowned world champion in the modern era along with Canada’s Cliff Thorburn in 1980, added: “I’ve got to forget about playing well or anything and just prepare as well as I have done.
“Yesterday was an awesome session of snooker, I think we both had four frame-winning visits each in the eight frames and so coming into tonight (this morning) I felt really good.
Meanwhile, a match between two former multiple world champions saw Mark Williams beat John Higgins 13-7, with this year’s tournament thrown open by O’Sullivan’s shock final-frame loss to Anthony McGill.
Williams increased his overnight lead to 10-3 with a five-frame burst in the morning session.
Higgins stayed in touch by winning three frames, the Scot compiling two century breaks.
But 46-year-old Williams kept his cool and the Welshman, a three-time world champion, sealed his place in the last eight with breaks of 76, 85 and 77.
Williams, who now faces either Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen or England’s Mark Selby, said: “I put him (Higgins) under pressure from the off. He missed a few and then he let his arm go this morning and potted everything so I knew he could come back.
“But I also knew I was playing well. I am just enjoying my snooker and I am playing the kind of game I did 20 years ago and am loving every minute of it.”
