Top two stroll through

Maguire: Regulation victory

Also see

• Snooker Schedule
• World Rankings
• Snooker DVDs

The world number one and number two both breezed through into the last eight of the Welsh Open, with Stephen Maguire joining Ronnie O'Sullivan in recording comfortable victories.

'The Rocket' enjoyed a 5-0 whitewash of Jamie Cope to book his place in the last eight, with the victory coming in just 55 minutes at the Newport Centre.

O'Sullivan will now play Mark Allen for a place in the semi-finals after he ended Matthew Stevens' chances with a 5-2 success.

World number two Maguire also cruised into the last eight as he waltzed past Barry Hawkins 5-1, with the Scotsman only needing a high break of 55 to see him beat the world number 17.

Stoke potter Cope simply could not cope with O'Sullivan, although a host of simple errors did not help his case, and he handed the three-time world champion chance after chance.

No Century

O'Sullivan did not need to make a century break, with runs of 73, 60 and 52 being more than enough to book his place in the last eight at a canter.

World number 11 Allen was involved in a match of much higher quality with Welshman Stevens, who had to hit two centuries just to get his frames on the board.

Stevens fired in a break of 106 to level the match after losing the opener, but Allen then produced runs of 73, 79 and 73 to move into a 4-1 lead and leave Stevens on the brink.

The Welshman rallied though and reduced the deficit to two as he amassed his second century of the match with a battling 109.

Allen took the next though, and the match, and he faces another test against O'Sullivan - although he came out on top at the Crucible last year when Allen beat him en route to the World Championship semis.

Thursday's evening session saw John Higgins and Mark Williams also book their places in the last eight of the tournament with comfortable wins.

World champion Higgins saw off fellow Scott Graeme Dott 5-1 while Williams needed just an hour to thrash Andrew Higginson 5-0, the Welshman managing breaks of 106, 89, 75 and 68 in a lop-sided match.

Mark Selby found life much tougher against Mark King, eventually triumphing 5-3 to set up a quarter-final showdown with Higgins.

King battled back from 3-1 down to level matters at three apiece before Selby clinched victory with runs of 63 and then 71.