World number one Judd Trump made light work of Liang Wenbo at the UK Championship, easing to a 6-1 victory in Milton Keynes.
Trump is bidding for what would be his second UK title having won in York back in 2011, and with the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Allen having already fallen by the wayside, he remains firmly on course for his third success of the season.
Wenbo will likely look back on the match with regret having spurned a golden opportunity to win the fifth frame and close to 3-2 when missing a simple yellow off its spot. Trump needed no second invitation to clinch the frame and he was in cruise control thereafter, dictating terms in frame six before closing out the match with a fluent run of 89.
Trump rarely need to come out of second gear to lead 3-0 as Wenbo initially failed to settle, but after the recent Northern Ireland Open winner made a break of 68 in frame three, the Chinese responded with a hand of 75 in frame four to finally get a foothold in the match.
Trump was in first in what turned out to be the pivotal fifth frame, but his opening offering of 51 left the door ajar for Wenbo who looked to have the clearance firmly under control until inexplicably fluffing his lines on the colours.
Trump will face either Mark Williams or Ricky Walden in the last 16.
Barry Hawkins produced an even more impressive display when getting the better of Robert Milkins in a high-quality contest.
Hawkins made a century and five more breaks of over 50 in his 6-3 victory while Milkins made breaks of 80 and 99 of his own.
Hawkins was firmly in charge when racing into a 4-0 lead, but to his credit Milkins rallied to win three of the next four frames before Hawkins finished the match with a ruthless run of 69.
There were less fireworks in John Higgins' 6-2 victory over Jak Jones but the veteran Scot was always in control after claiming three of the first four frames.
Jones made a fine century in frame seven, but he was always swimming against the tide and Higgins made no mistake in frame eight to set up a fourth-round meeting with Zhou Yuelong, who was a 6-5 victor over Chang Bingyu.
In the evening, Neil Robertson beat Li Hang 6-2 without cause for alarm, but the standout performance came from Graeme Dott, also a 6-2 winner in his clash with Stuart Bingham.
Dott raced out of the blocks with breaks of 126 and 137 as Bingham was forced to wait until the third frame to pot a ball. Despite doing so, he lost that and the fourth before halving his deficit with back-to-back frames.
However, any hope of a fightback was soon ended as Dott took the next two, earning a meeting with either Kyren Wilson or Kurt Maflin next.
