Ding Junhui leads out-of-sorts Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins takes control against Kyren Wilson

O'Sullivan had to fight back in the morning session against Ding, who started extremely well, and it was the same for most of the evening session except he failed to produce the comeback.

Ding took six of the eight evening frames to open a lead going into the final session and O'Sullivan faces a fight on his hands to make it to the semi-finals.

Where as 'The Rocket' looked rusty and made some basic mistakes and missed easy pots, Ding looked calm and collected, and was ready to punish any mistakes from his opponent.

On the other table Higgins is in an even better situation as he is just two frames away from victory against Wilson.

Like Ding Higgins took six of the frames on offer which included two centuries of 129 and 125 and the four-times champion looks a good bet to reach the semi-finals, where he will face either Barry Hawkins or Stephen Maguire.

0-79 (71), 12-128 (128), 7-77 (71), 79-11 (63), 99-0, 102-16 (65), 69-76, 19-107 (59), 40-87 (63), 84-42 (84), 31-64 (64), 56-82 (65), 0-120 (120), 35-68 (59), 0-87 (56), 104-0 (104)

Centuries: Three

1-72, 5-94 (60), 67-31, 92-0 (92), 36-53, 62-15 (61), 17-63 (62), 9-67 (59), 0-129 (129), 67-45, 86-42, 0-74 (74), 0-135 (135), 97-0 (97), 45-71, 4-71

Centuries: Two

Defending champion Mark Selby has taken an early lead in his quarter-final against Marco Fu as he ended with a 6-2 lead after the first session.

Fu looked horrendously out of sorts, missing a number of simple pots and making other basic mistakes, as Selby took the first five frames.

Fu offered a bit of a fight-back, winning two of the last three frames, but he faces a tough fight in the second session.

On the other table Stephen Maguire battled back from 5-1 down to trail 5-3 against Barry Hawkins which included a dramatic battle in the seventh to win his second frame.

Interestingly none of the four players made a century in this session.

71-0, 84-36, 82-0 (82), 97-0 (70), 94-0 (94), 17-77, 41-77 (60), 75-42

Centuries: None.

25-82 (81), 88-40, 65-41, 98-4 (98), 71-43, 79-27, 57-68, 21-66

Centuries: None

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ding Junhui produced a sensational morning of snooker at the Crucible, wowing a Sheffield crowd with eight quarter-final frames that were over in the blink of an eye.

Ding raced out of the blocks into a three-frame lead, racking up the only century of the session with a fine 128. But Ronnie responded with a three-frame streak of his own to level.

Drama in the seventh saw the frame go to a re-spotted black, with a mistake from Ronnie allowing Ding to avoid being behind at the break. But a fine clearance of 59 from the Rocket ensured that the scores were level going into lunch.

The pace of play on the other table at the Crucible was far slower, with Kyren Wilson and John Higgins taking a more tactical approach to their quarter-final. A break of 92 in the fourth frame from Wilson was the pick, but Higgins produced two big clearances to take the session 5-3.

0-79 (71), 12-128 (128), 7-77 (71), 79-11 (63), 99-0, 102-16 (65), 69-76, 107-19 (59)

Centuries: One

1-72, 5-94 (60), 67-31, 92-0 (92), 36-53, 62-15 (61), 17-63 (62), 9-67 (59)

Centuries: 0