Stephen Maguire marched into the quarter-finals of the 2017 Betfred World Championship after completing a 13-3 rout of Rory McLeod on Sunday, while Neil Robertson and Marco Fu remain finely poised at 8-8 ahead of their final session at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

The Scotsman advanced to the Last Eight with a session to spare as he comfortably saw off McLeod, who was unable to build on his scalp of Judd Trump in the opening round.

Leading 6-2 overnight, Maguire came flying out of the blocks with a magnificent break of 114 helping stretch his advantage to 8-2.

World number 54 McLeod replied by winning the next to give him the faintest of hopes but it proved to be a false dawn for the Highlander, as the two-time semi-finalist had further runs of 61, 90 and 57 to seal his passage to the quarters.

Meanwhile, Barry Hawkins is looking good to play Maguire after establishing a healthy 10-6 lead over Graeme Dott.

Despite losing the opening two frames, the 2013 finalist won nine of the next 10 including the 11th with a stunning 70 clearance on the way to a 9-3 advantage.

2006 World Champion Dott rallied with breaks of 65, 59 and 105 to reduce the deficit to 9-6 but Hawkins, who was celebrating his 38th birthday on Sunday, took the final frame of the session on the pink to give himself breathing space ahead of Monday’s finale.

Reigning champion Mark Selby also holds a four-frame cushion by that scoreline against Xiao Guodong, although it could have been a lot more comfortable for the world number one.

Trailing 6-2 overnight, Xiao hit the ground running with breaks of 89 and 131 to cut the gap to 7-4, but Selby responded with a 68 clearance on the way to opening up a six-frame buffer at 10-4.

He looked good for 11-4 after initially getting in with 51, but his Chinese opponent produced an important clearance of 49 to snatch the frame before also taking the last of the session to give him hope.

Elsewhere, there is nothing to separate Robertson and Fu, who shared the opening 16 frames of their first two sessions.

The Australian made breaks of 105, 62 and 90 to open up a 4-1 lead, only for the man from Hong Kong to respond with 118 and 60 on the way to making it 4-4.

It was very much neck and neck in the evening with 2010 champion Robertson seeing runs of 91 and 58 cancelled out by contributions of 109, 64, 72 and 56 to leave their match finely poised on Monday.

Sunday April 23

Second Round

17) Mark Selby 10-6 Xiao Guodong          

24) Stephen Maguire 13-3 Rory McLeod

18) Neil Robertson 8-8 Marco Fu

23) Barry Hawkins 10-6 Graeme Dott