Snooker results: Kyren Wilson beats Judd Trump 4-3 in Coral World Grand Prix

Trump never led in the match after losing a marathon first frame, but having levelled from 3-1 down to force a decider he appeared set to inflict another damaging defeat on his long-time rival.

But Wilson, who has lost a number of close matches in a stop-start campaign, finally took his chance to pot the blue and pink and reach just his second ranking quarter-final since the World Championship last April.

In the end, the match took the shape of its opening frame, one Wilson won having been first in yet ultimately needed more than one bite of the cherry.

That 35-minute opener went his way when Trump missed a brown he would have expected to pot, eventually paving the way for Wilson to move into the lead.

Wilson began the second frame in aggressive fashion, a long red and a good blue opening up an opportunity, but a poor mid-range miss allowed Trump to sweep in with a break of 77 to level at 1-1.

This time it was the left-hander who got in first in frame three, but a sloppy positional shot after an excellent black led to a missed red to leave Wilson a golden opportunity.

The Kettering man could only make 41 before missing black off the spot, but he was handed a reprieve as Trump missed a vital black - perhaps, on reflection, his best chance to lead in the match.

Instead it was Wilson who took the lead again and he produced some of his best snooker in the following frame, a delicate red to middle when bridging over the pack the highlight of a surgical 68 as he moved within one of an important victory.

Trump was not at his best, struggling at times to control the cue ball, and Wilson had an excellent chance to wrap up a comprehensive win when coming to the table in frame five.

But as the pressure increased, a wild missed red cost him that opportunity and when Trump took a half-chance to the middle pocket, he was on his way to what would be the only century of the match, a break of exactly 100 to keep his hopes alive.

Wilson has lost more than his share of close matches recently, and that perhaps prayed on his mind as he produced a string of sloppy shots in frame six, failing to punish Trump for going in-off the pink.

With the scores level, Wilson managed to turn the final frame into a tense battle of safety play and half-chances, and he was first to make a meaningful contribution with a break of 35 which ended when he ran out of position.

Trump powered a yellow into the middle to kickstart his counter-attack, and two brilliant pinks to the middle suggested he was going to break the heart of an opponent with whom he's shared a real rivalry over the last few years.

But when he failed to develop the final red, Trump's break ended at 50 and so ensued a set-to in which both players were aware of the need to keep the other from having a look at a long-range opening.

Both laid snookers - first Trump, then Wilson - and it was the latter who earned his chance as he came to the table with five of the six colours needed to fall over the line.

The yellow he potted to the right middle was Trumpian - powerful, precise and brave - but Wilson then missed a tricky brown in the jaws, before potting the same ball after his opponent left a delicately thin cut to the opposite centre pocket.

That left Wilson needing an easy blue and yet there was one final alarm as he hit the far jaw, leaving Trump a look at what would have been nothing less than daylight robbery.

Uncharacteristically, the reigning world champion failed to take it and this time Wilson could hardly fail with what was left in front of him, potting a simple blue and a gentle pink to finally end a three-hour encounter which could have real significance.

In January last year, it was Trump who won a high-profile battle between these two at the Masters, going on to win that event and then take the World Championship at the Crucible.

Wilson has a long way to go to complete a similar journey, but this success - at times ugly, and certainly with a degree of fortune relating to the fact Trump was well below his best - could yet be a portent of something bigger.

On the other table, Joe Perry was a commanding winner over Scott Donaldson, albeit the Scot rallied impressively to keep the scoreline respectable at 4-2.

Perry chiselled out a 3-0 lead before Donaldson's back-to-back centuries raised hopes of a turnaround, but a scrappy sixth frame suited Gentleman Joe down to the ground as he advanced to the last eight.

There he’ll meet Neil Robertson, a 4-0 winner against Mark Williams, while next for Wilson is John Higgins, who saw off Zhao Xintong 4-1.