• Ricky On Course

    Eight is considered to be the luckiest number in China, which certainly applies to the players left in as the quarter-final line up in this year's Roewe Shanghai Masters was completed earlier today with Ricky Walden staying on course for successful defence of the title.

    26-year-old Walden reached his first quarter-final since winning in the China last October, and only the third of his career, with a convincing five-frames-to-one win over Stephen Hendry.

    Walden won the opening frame in under ten minutes with an aggressive 83 break, and followed up with breaks of 48 and 63 before potting a long pink to take a 4-0 lead at the interval.

    Hendry, who recovered from the same score line to beat Marcus Campbell on Tuesday, rallied for a short time making a break of 52, to avoid the dreaded whitewash.

    It only delayed the inevitable though, as Walden cleared with 73 in the next to seal the win.

    In the quarter-finals he will play Chinese hero, Liang Wenbo, who sent world number four Allister Carter crashing out.

    Carter’s record in international events is not as good as his domestic record, so it was no real surprise that the local favourite cruised to victory in a somewhat scrappy affair.

    Wenbo is one of the highest scorers in the modern game, but only needed one break over fifty to record a five-nil whitewash and progress through.

    In the last eight he will be joined by another Chinese player, as Ding Junhui continues in search of the form which took him to three ranking titles in his teens.

    He has never really recovered from the heavy defeats inflicted by Ronnie O’Sullivan a couple of seasons ago.  The comeback might be placed on hold though, if those painful memories are revisited in Shanghai as he lines up against the world number one tomorrow.

    Ronnie showed flashes of his best in a five-frames-to-two win over Hong Kong’s Marco Fu and while he is still in, he remains the one to beat.

    World number three and current UK Champion, Shaun Murphy take on a resurgent Ken Doherty, fresh from his win in the Pro Challenge Series last week.

    Murphy was the most impressive player today as he restricted Jamie Cope to just 39 points in their five frames which included breaks of 133, the highest of the tournament so far, and 106.

    Doherty won a second consecutive deciding frame to beat Barry Hawkins in the longest match of the tournament, lasting well over three hours.