One-frame victory for Higgins lines up Maguire

Higgins hit back from behind to scrape a 9-8 win with breaks of 56 and 24 to seal victory and a last eight meeting with fellow Scot Stephen Maguire, who rounded off a 9-7 win over Mark Selby with a break of 135.

Higgins said: "It's good to be back and I'm motivated full-stop for the second chapter.

"I just came here to try to win games and tough games are what you want because you know you'll have to play well to win them.

"It was very tough and Graeme doesn't get the credit he deserves for his game.

"It's such a tough match to win 9-8 and Graeme will be kicking himself because there were a couple of frames I probably stole from him."

World champion Neil Robertson held off a mini-fightback by Andrew Higginson to move into the last eight with a 9-5 victory.

Higginson hit back from 7-1 down overnight to 7-4 before Robertson recovered his composure. Robertson admitted: "I played a silly shot when I was 7-0 up last night. I thought it was showtime."

Stephen Hendry ground his way into a 5-3 lead after a desperately low-quality first session to his second-round clash with Mark Williams.

The Scot had needed all his fighting spirit to overhaul old rival Jimmy White in round one as the game which made him a seven-time world champion deserted him.

And the pattern continued, although two half-centuries and two more breaks in the 40s provided glimpses of Hendry's best form.

Williams managed to share the first six frames equally despite not making a break higher than 24, and Hendry's 28 was the highest contribution in a scrappy seventh frame which saw him retake the lead.

The Scot then extended his advantage as a 44 set him on his way to victory in frame eight before both players left the arena grinning.

Stuart Bingham carried on where he left off in his win over Ronnie O'Sullivan by surging into a 6-2 lead over Marco Fu.