2016 Masters (Day Four) - Vintage Higgins wins against Liang

John Higgins and Liang Wenbo put on quite a thrilling snooker show for all the people that came to see them at Ally Pally, but also for the entire snooker-sphere, in a high-quality match that ended with the victory of the Scot, 6-4.

The evening came with another whitewash, as it did yesterday, this time Neil Robertson being responsible for sending home Marco Fu, 6-0.

It's been a genuine delight to follow Higgins and Liang in action and I'm guessing I am not the only one thinking this match deserved a decider.

The opening frame was carefully grabbed by the Scot with an amazing 119 clearance to which his opponent answered with breaks of 88 and 42 to take the lead.

But the lads would be all square at the interval, Higgins using another century break, this time a 104 that was meant to be a maximum, to make the scoreline go 2-2. This was game on!

After the mini-break the players returned into the arena, "The Wizard of Wishaw" continuing his potting rage with a break of 75.

But Liang wasn't going to become intimidated by this, so a strategically cued 61 break was equalising the situation at hand at 3-3.

Once more time Higgins put his nose in front and once again he did it with a century break (133), Liang repeating his performance and drawing level.

The history repeated itself during frame nine, John's 85 break putting him one away from victory, only that this time Liang was unable to catch up, the Scotsman awarding himself the missing frame on the pink with just a top break of 32.

With only one more place left in the quarter-finals, Neil Robertson and Marco Fu entered the arena for their evening match.

Sadly enough for the craving-for-spectacle people though, this proved to be quite a short match, Robertson using breaks of 41, 106, 57 and 73 to go 4-0 up at the interval.

Although stranger things have happened when the players break their rhythm as the mid-session interval starts, this wasn't going to be one of those situations, Fu proving practically overwhelmed by Robertson's performance.

The Aussie closed the deal with runs of 54 and 48 for a clear 6-0 victory and a place in the quarters.

After the match, Fu apologised to all the people who bought tickets and mentioned that he came down with a virus last night and didn't feel too good.

Thursday kicks off in style with what promises to be two great matches:

1pm
Mark Selby v. Ronnie O'Sullivan

7pm
Mark Allen v. Barry Hawkins

*all hours are UK time