Ebdon sees off Robertson

World champion Neil Robertson bowed out of the China Open to continue his poor run in the country.

The Australian has still failed to reach the quarter-finals of the competition after being knocked out for the second successive year by Peter Ebdon, 5-1.

Ebdon ground his way through the first frame and then took the next two with patiently constructed breaks of 85 and 65.

The former world champion rolled in a 42 and closed out a scrappy fourth frame to complete a clean sweep before the interval, before Robertson got off the mark in the fifth.

However, Ebdon took control of the sixth frame and looked to have wrapped up the contest when a break of 21 put him 29 points clear with just the colours remaining.

However, Robertson got four snookers on the green to trail by just three points.

But Ebdon then fluked the green and went on to wrap up the frame 78-57 to set up a quarter-final with fellow Englishman Judd Trump.

Rising star Trump beat compatriot Mark Davis 5-2, never looking back after taking the first three frames of the contest.

Li Hang was unable to complete a third victory over a former world champion at Beijing’s Students University Stadium.

Li, who had already seen off Ken Doherty and Graeme Dott, lost 5-4 to Shaun Murphy despite starting strongly.

The Chinese player led 2-0 but Murphy hit back to take a 4-3 lead and although Li took the contest to a deciding frame, it was the 2005 world champion who won it.

The first player to make sure of a place in the last eight was Stephen Lee.

Wales’ Ryan Day was unable to take advantage of his first round defeat of Ronnie O’Sullivan as he crashed out 5-2 to the Trowbridge player.