O’Sullivan & Brecel one frame each from last eight

With a 12-point lead over Chinese duo Pang Junxu and Ding Junhui, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Luca Brecel are both 12 frames away from reaching the 2025 World Snooker Championship quarter-finals, respectively.

O’Sullivan, 49, and Brecel lifted the trophy at the Crucible two years ago, while Brecel is aiming to win it for what would be a record-setting eighth time in modern history.

When their matches resume on Monday at 19:00 BST, both men will be hoping to clinch quick victories.

O’Sullivan led 6-2 going into the second session, but qualifier Pang pulled two frames back after 87 and 62. O’Sullivan quickly regained his form on Sunday, winning the remaining six frames with runs of 79, 80, 105, 135, and 62.

One of the Crucible’s most notable sessions was led by Belgian Brecel on Saturday evening. He lost the opening frame before winning seven games in a row with a sensational display of attacking snooker after arriving at the venue only 25 minutes before play was scheduled to begin on a private jet from his home country.

On Sunday, he continued where he had stopped.

Judd Trump, the world’s number one, and fellow former world champion Shaun Murphy, the other two, each had a 5-3 advantage in their final-16 match, but they only managed one chance to earn a £100,000 bonus.

Trump, 35, rallied from 2-0 and 3-2 down to win the final three frames of the session before missing a pot on the yellow that would have allowed him to take a century break when he was 98 in frame eight.

He has 98 centuries this season, and he is the only player to have reached 100 tons this year, which would award him a prize of £100,000.

As the match resumes at 19:00 BST, before the final session begins on Monday at 13:00 BST, in the best-of-25 match, Trump will have eight more frames to play.

Only two campaigners, Neil Robertson and Donald Trump, have recorded 100 century breaks; 103 in 2013 and 103 in 2018 and 102 in 2019.

Most century breaks occur in a single season.

With a 13-10 victory over Lei Peifan, China’s Zhao Xintong made it to the quarter-finals for the first time in his career.

In the second session, Zhao, 27, potted nine reds and nine blacks before his break ended with a score of 72. He was on course for a maximum 147 in the opening frame of the day.

Lei, who had previously defeated 2024 world champion Kyren Wilson in round one, threatened a comeback in frame 20 before he was 41-12 ahead in frame 20.

However, Zhao claimed the victory with a 54-minute break, which would have already eliminated former world champion Mark Allen and 2010 world champion Neil Robertson, who has already qualified for a quarter-final against England’s Chris Wakelin.

He declared, “I’m so happy that this is my first quarter-finale, and I’m so proud of myself.” He [Lei] faced Kyren Wilson in the first round, so I knew I wasn’t going to win and needed to be strong.

“I just want to go through the Crucible because it’s very nice, the crowd is nice, and I want to stay longer.” I need to try my best and enjoy it. I’m very confident in playing Chris Wakelin because this is my first time.

Zhao, a former UK Championship champion, was one of 10 Chinese players who received bans for their involvement in match-fixing in June 2023.

He was the only player to return after serving a 20-month ban and accepting accusations of being a party to another player who had fixed two matches and had himself bet on matches. He had not immediately thrown a match.