John Higgins breaks Ronnie O'Sullivan's snooker record after high-quality win over World Champion

Class of 92 member Higgins - who turns 50 in May - ended a four-year wait for a ranking event title with victory at last week's World Open in Yushan, China. Now, the great Scot is eyeing up back-to-back trophies on the World Snooker Tour as he moved into the last eight of the first Players Series tournament of the season.

Having ousted Ali Carter - another player in very good nick - 4-3 in the opening round at the Kai Tak Sports Park, Higgins come up against world number two Wilson, who also required a deciding frame in his opening assignment as he edged past Matthew Selt.

In what would be one of the highest-quality matches of the season, Wilson set the tone early on with a break of 131 in the opening frame, although Higgins responded by bettering that with a 143 in frame two - the highest break of the competition, so far, putting him in line for the £10,000 bonus prize.

Wilson went back in front of the tie following an effort of 72, but that frame would yield his final points of the match as Higgins compiled breaks of 74, 92 and 100 in a three-frame burst that got him past the winning line. The loser of each frame in the contest scored no points.

Next up for Higgins at the £700,000 ranking event is either Barry Hawkins or Shaun Murphy on Friday in the last eight.

Victory for Higgins in Hong Kong on Thursday was an historic one, as it puts him through to a record-breaking 147th ranking event quarter-final of his illustrious career, meaning he outright passes Ronnie O’Sullivan on the all-time list who was on 146 alongside Higgins going into this tournament.

Higgins’ first ranking event quarter-final came at the 1993 British Open during his rookie season as a professional. In total, he won 11 matches to reach that stage - defeating players such as John Virgo and Terry Griffiths along the way - before bowing out to Jimmy White, 5-3, at the main venue of the Assembly Rooms in Derby.

Elsewhere during the opening round of 16 fixtures of the ongoing 2025 World Grand Prix, there was another very entertaining tie, with 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham getting the better of youngster Wu Yize, 4-2.

Two-time a ranking event finalist this season, Wu got off to a sensational start as he constructed breaks of 129 and 120 in consecutive frames to go 2-0 up. However, Bingham - who eliminated Mark Williams in round one - fashioned efforts of 80, 108 and 50 as he strung off the next four frames to advance.

Neil Robertson also progressed to the quarter-finals following a 4-1 win over David Gilbert. Robertson top scored with a 78 break.

For the draw and results from the 2025 World Grand Prix, please visit our tournament information centre here.