John Higgins remains Indian Open favourite but is closely followed by Shaun Murphy after both men reached the last 16 on Thursday.
Higgins, who can be backed at 11/4 with Sky Bet, was not at his best but still managed to see off Martin O'Donnell 4-2, with his highest break being 74 in the fourth frame.
Murphy maintained his quest for a first title of the season with a 4-1 defeat of Fergal O'Brien and he is now 4/1 with Sky Bet.
The Magician was runner-up in back-to-back finals at the China Championship and Paul Hunter Classic but runs of 97, 105 and 125 shows he's certainly in good enough form to go one better this weekend.
Next in the running is 6/1 shot Stuart Bingham, who booked his spot in the last 16 with a comfortable 4-1 victory against Matthew Selt.
The former Crucible champion and current world number nine closed out the tie with breaks of 68 and 67.
Mark Allen held off Alexander Ursenbacher's fightback to win 4-2 and clinch his place in the last 16.
The world number 11, who is 7/1, told www.worldsnooker.com: "I did feel comfortable at 3-0 and felt like I would go on and win 4-0, but snooker isn’t that easy. The slightest thing can turn matches. He got a little bit of luck at the start of frame four and made a good break. Next thing I know it was 3-2. I’m pleased to get through.
"It's a chance for me to go really deep in this tournament and hopefully lift the trophy. However, there are a lot of other good players standing in my way and they will be thinking the same thing."
Thursday's second-round results
- Anthony McGill 4-1 Rory McLeod
- Hossein Vafaei 4-2 Gerard Greene
- Tian Pengfei 2-4 Zhang Anda
- Sam Baird 3-4 Ken Doherty
- Stuart Bingham 4-1 Matthew Selt
- Mark King 4-1 Graeme Dott
- Elliot Slessor 4-3 Joe Perry
- Fergal O'Brien 1-4 Shaun Murphy
- Xu Si 4-3 Sean O'Sullivan
- Ricky Walden 4-2 Ben Woollaston
- Kurt Maflin 3-4 David Gilbert
- Alexander Ursenbacher 2-4 Mark Allen
- Liam Highfield 4-3 Yu De Lu
- Akani Songsermsawad 4-0 Dominic Dale
- Gary Wilson 2-4 Michael Holt
- Martin O'Donnell 2-4 John Higgins
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