Ebdon beats King to get into quarter-finals

Peter Ebdon tonight became the first player into the quarter-finals of the 888.com World Championship with victory over Mark King in Sheffield.

The 2002 champion ground out a 13-9 win over left-hander King and will face either Shaun Murphy or Ali Carter in the last eight at the Crucible.

Ebdon began the evening session with a 9-6 lead and quickly extended that to 11-6 with consecutive breaks of 79.

King battled back to take the next two frames with the help of a break of 121 before Ebdon edged closer to the winning line by winning a scrappy 20th frame.

King, a surprise winner over last year’s runner-up Mark Selby in the first round, produced a break of 79 to stay alive but Ebdon’s run of 54 in the next ultimately proved enough to seal victory.