Four-time champion John Higgins had led 4-0 towards Ali Carter on Sunday, just for the Englishman to win 5 frames in a row to maintain the in a single day lead.
Higgins, 50, made breaks of 63 and 81 to go forward, earlier than Carter’s 106 in body 12 made it 6-6, though the Scot received 4 of the subsequent 5 frames to advance 10-7.
That units up a last-16 match towards both seven-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan or Chinese debutant He Guoqiang.
“That’s the first time here I’ve been 4-0 up and then gone 5-4 behind so it was not a great sleep,” mentioned Higgins. “But I tried to forget about that and get on with my game.
“There’s no person that has extra respect for Ali as a snooker participant than me, I’ve performed him so many occasions and typically he has been cueing like a dream.
“Deep down when my name was pulled out against him I was not happy – you know you’re in for a mammoth game so I’m over the moon I got the win.”
Carter, crushed by O’Sullivan within the 2008 and 2012 finals, has now gone out within the first spherical within the Crucible in 4 years in a row.
“I made a couple of mistakes and got punished severely, just a little bit of a run of the balls – I’m as sick as a dog,” mentioned Carter.
Ding Junhui, the 2016 runner-up, accomplished a 10-5 win over David Gilbert, having held a 7-2 lead following Sunday’s opening session.
In an all-Chinese last-16 tie, Ding will tackle Zhao Xintong, who turned the nation’s first world champion in 2025.
Shaun Murphy, the 2005 winner, holds a 5-4 lead over China’s Fan Zhengyi after making a superb 140 clearance within the last body of the session, with that match ending on Tuesday night.
China’s tenth seed Wu Yize made one century and 5 half-centuries in a one-sided session to lead compatriot Lei Peifan 8-1.
