Defending champion Anthony McGill has booked his place in the quarter-finals of the Indian Open with a 4-1 victory over Hossein Vafaei on Friday. The Scot, who claimed his first ever ranking title when he beat Kyren Wilson 5-2 in the final last season, had already seen off Ashley Hugill and Rory McLeod at this year’s tournament and he made light work of disposing of Iranian ace Vafaei.
McGill’s victory included back-to-back half centuries in frames three and four and he appears to be hitting form at the right time, as he also reached the semi-finals of the Six-red World Championship earlier this month. The 26-year-old’s reward for reaching the last eight in Vishakhapatnam is a clash with China’s Zhang Anda, who has made it through to the quarter-finals of a ranking event for the very first time after securing a narrow 4-3 victory over former world champion Ken Doherty.
Anda held his nerve against his more experienced opponent to win the decisive frame, having previously been 3-1 up and in a commanding position. The 25-year-old will now be hoping to add McGill to his list of scalps this week and he will fancy his chances of progressing through to the semi-finals, as he has beaten his Scottish opponent the last two times they have met, most recently at last year’s UK Championship. Other notable victors in the Last 16 were Englishman Mark King, who beat 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham 4-3, and China’s Xu Si, who also needed a deciding frame to see off world number 24 Ricky Walden.
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