World Championship 2022 - Anthony McGill edges past gutsy Liam Highfield to reach last 16

Anthony McGill edged past a gutsy Liam Highfield 10-7 to reach the last 16 of the World Championships at the Crucible.

McGill had pulled away from Highfield in Sunday's session and took a 6-3 lead into the morning session on Monday.

And it was a much closer encounter on Monday with Highfield often the stronger player but unable to close the gap on his opponent - for every brilliant long red there was a poor positional shot or loose safety to follow, and a lack of consistency cost him a chance at thew match against an ice-cold McGill.

31-year-old Highfield kicked the morning session off with a run of 47 but a missed blue to right middle saw McGill at the table. A lengthy safety battle ensued and Highfield was not over the line just yet, but some wonderful cue power helped in a long red and saw the underdog reduce the deficit to 6-4.

Highfield should have taken the second frame of the morning too, grabbing a 63-point lead leaving McGill in need of a snooker. But his inconsistency was on show as he missed an easy red to right middle and clattered the blue to give McGill five points, the Scot following up with a remarkable clearance of 59 to steal the frame by a single point and restore his three-frame lead.

Highfield had to exorcise the demons of the 11th frame quickly and he did just that. The two players exchanged easy missed reds in the next but it was Highfield who rediscovered his positional play and overturned a 38-point deficit to take the frame, with a remarkable long red to the bottom left the highlight when McGill thought he was safe.

With momentum on side, the underdog then managed to reduce the deficit to just one frame ahead of the mid-session interval, a run of 77 enough to see McGill concede a frame where Highfield finally looked comfortable in his break-building.

But in the 14th frame, Highfield drew sighs from the crowd once again after he snatched at a pink that rattled the jaws to hand the initiative back to McGill. The Scot missed an easy red but, after winning the following safety battle overturned Highfield's 34-point lead to go 29 up with 25 left on the table. McGill sank the green to all-but seal the frame, but snookered himself and missed the brown to give hope back to Highfield in need of two snookers. Amazingly, McGill snookered himself again on the blue and missed the pink to keep Highfield in the frame, but eventually the Scot sank the pink to put a bizarre frame to bed and go 8-6 up.

Highfield led points scored, balls potted, pot success rate and had the highest break of the match so far but found himself two frames down largely due to his inability to find consistency and play convincing safeties. McGill, meanwhile, looked the calmer player and now needed just two frames to reach the next round.

At 50-31 up in the 15th frame, McGill failed to show calm as he missed a black off the spot to gasps from the crowd, but Highfield could still not take advantage as he rattled a red off the jaws and later played a loose safety. With McGill back at the table, he made no mistake, sweeping up the colours to go within one frame of the second round.

A rollercoaster frame followed as McGill struggled to get to the finish line. A brilliant long red to bottom left was followed by a world class-snooker from McGIll, but Highfield escaped and then sank a long red in a do-or-die moment that would have left McGill with the match to win had he missed. Instead, Highfield had the frame in sight at 57-1 up, but rushed a red into the jaws of the pocket that let McGill back to the table. McGill found a red and a safety but Highfield sank a brilliant plant and a long yellow too, reducing the deficit to two frames and keeping himself in the match.

In the 17th frame, as Highfield missed an easy red to bottom left, the frame and match looked like McGill's for the taking but the Scot returned the favour and missed an easy red to bottom right that lingered over the pocket. Highfield, down 12 points, sank the red but missed a plant, leaving McGill back at the table where a colossal fluke would see him on his way to victory in cruel fashion for Highfield. McGill missed the red to bottom left but the cannon back off the jaws knocked another into the bottom right pocket, and with that the Scot sealed the frame and the match.

McGill goes on to play either Hossein Vafaei or Judd Trump in the next round.

On the other side of the curtain at the Crucible, Mark Allen holds a 5-4 lead over Scott Donaldson after their morning session drew to a close in Sheffield.

The two exchanged the lead three times as Donaldson fought back from 1-0 down to lead, but Allen clawed his way back in front thanks to an excellent century.

Donaldson levelled the match at 4-4, but Allen took the advantage heading into the evening session, conjuring up a second century to make it 5-4 in the tightest of contests.

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