Quarter-finals line-up locked in at China Open as title holder Robertson advances

Thursday saw the remaining round two fixtures completed, and reigning champion Neil Robertson progressed in the £1.2 million ranking event with a comfortable 6-2 win over Si Jiahui.

The Australian deposited the opening frame with a 57 break before number 16 seed Si levelled up with the help of a 51. Robertson then took control of the tie in winning the next three frames, registering runs of 89 and 102 either side of the mid-session interval.

Former Crucible semi-finalist Si contributed with a ton of his own - a 108 in frame six - to keep in touch, but the title holder claimed the next two (79, frame seven) to wrap up victory with spare change.

The only player from the top five in the world rankings to reach the quarter-finals this week, Robertson now knows that if he lifts the trophy on Sunday in the Far East, he will be guaranteed to be world number one later this month.

It is over 11 years since Robertson last sat at the summit of snooker’s global standings, but with current top dog Judd Trump very likely to lose that status with £500,000 soon to be removed from his two-year tally, several players have mathematically been in with a shout of usurping him.

Mark Selby continues perfect record against Kyren Wilson

Robertson is aiming to become the third player in China Open history to win back-to-back titles, following in the footsteps of Ronnie O’Sullivan (1999, 2000) and Mark Selby (2017, 2018), and now he has to face the latter in Friday’s last eight in order to keep the possibility of that feat alive.

Record-equalling three-time China Open champion Selby - who, after 20 years, is using a new cue this season - dispatched Kyren Wilson, 6-1, in the evening session in Taiyuan.

Selby went 2-0 up after efforts of 65 and 138 before a brilliant counter clearance of 46 with the final three reds saw him pinch the third on the final black by one point. The four-time world champion then made it 4-0 before Wilson got on the board just after the interval with a run of 99.

But that was just a minor inconvenience for Selby, who crafted 79 and 69 in the next two frames to seal an impressive win.

The result also means that Selby's perfect record over Wilson - away from the behind-closed-doors Championship League - continues. They have met eight times before, and Selby has won every single time, a sequence stretching back to their first meeting at a European Players Tour Championship event in 2010.

The other winners from day six of the first big-stage ranking competition of the fledgling 2026/27 professional snooker season were Stuart Bingham and Zhang Anda, who will now face each other.

In an all-qualifier contest pitching together the world numbers 21 and 27, many would have predicted the encounter between Bingham and Hossein Vafaei to go close, but the final scoreline was anything but as the former top scored with a 73 in a 6-0 whitewash success.

2015 World Champion Bingham - whose last ranking title came in 2019 - now has two clean sweep wins to his name in this tournament having bagelled Luca Brecel in the final qualifying round held in Leicester several weeks ago. It also represents consecutive whitewash wins over Vafaei after Bingham won their last meeting before today, 4-0, at the 2018 English Open.

Through to the quarter-finals of the China Open for the fifth time in his career, Bingham is seeking his maiden semi-final berth in the event.

Zhang was the final player through after denying world number 13 Chris Wakelin, 6-4.

Former International Championship winner Zhang struck breaks of 72, 118 and 79 in going 3-0 up, but Wakelin replied with a trio of frames (58 break, frame four) of his own for 3-3.

However, Zhang nudged back in front after a 95, and although Wakelin ousted frame eight to level again, Zhang secured the final two frames (62, frame ten) to reach the 15th ranking event quarter-final of his career.

All four quarter-finals are scheduled for Friday before a one-table set-up at the weekend. The other fixtures are Shaun Murphy v Noppon Saengkham and Zhou Yuelong v David Gilbert.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 China Open snooker, visit our tournament information centre here.