Teen ace Yuan pips countryman Ding at home event in China
DING Junhui suffered a shock defeat to teenager Yuan Sijun at the Evergrande China Championship in Guangzhou.
Yuan, 18, who turned professional last year, took a dramatic deciding frame to seal a 5-4 victory and reach the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time. He will now play Mark King, who was a comfortable 5-1 winner against Masters champion Mark Allen.
John Higgins was also a 5-4 winner after coming from 4-2 down to beat China’s Mei Xiwen.
World champion Mark Williams is through after overcoming Gary Wilson 5-2 while world number one Mark Selby was a 5-1 winner over Chinese wild card Chang Bingyu.
A repeat of the 2010 World Championship final saw Graeme Dott beat Neil Robertson 5-2, while Scott Donaldson came from 3-2 down to beat Jack Lisowski 5-3.
Judd Trump saw off Jamie Jones 5-2 while Shaun Murphy beat Xiao Guodong by the same score. Yan Bingtao was also a 5-2 winner over Stuart Bingham and Iran’s Hossein Vafaei is through after a 5-3 win over Ryan Day.
TENNIS: At the Shenzhen Open, Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka battled back from 0-3 down in the final set and saved two match points before recording a 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 7-5 victory over sixth seed Denis Shapovalov to reach the quarter-finals.
Pierre-Hugues Herbert overcame Greek second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) and will now play Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who edged past Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-6 (7/3).
Elsewhere, Qualifier Monica Puig reached the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open after defeating Caroline Wozniacki for the second time this year.
The Puerto Rican edged a close match 7-6 (12/10), 7-5 in two hours and 26 minutes, but she needed seven match points to get over the line.