Mark King beats John Higgins at UK Championship in York
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 07/12/17 2:15pm
Mark King staged an impressive comeback to defeat John Higgins at the UK Championship in York on Wednesday.
The world No 21 won four of the last five frames for a 6-5 victory to reach the quarter-finals at the Barbican Centre.
Three-time champion Higgins, the fourth seed, held leads of 4-2 and 5-4 but King's battling qualities came to the fore as he levelled the match and forced a deciding frame, which he clinched with a break of 69 - his highest of the match.
Higgins is the latest big-name casualty to exit the competition after holder Mark Selby, Judd Trump and Ding Junhui all failed to progress, leaving 42-year-old five-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan as the highest-ranked player left in the tournament.
Asked if he felt he could lift the trophy, King said: "Let's not get too carried away. But I don't fear anybody. I've played Ronnie loads of times and I've done well against him.
"It isn't like years ago. When someone beat Stephen (Hendry) or Steve (Davis) people wondered how he'd been beaten but nowadays the strength in depth in our game is such that anyone in the top 60 in the world can, on their day, beat one of the top players."
In the other afternoon match, Stephen Maguire beat fellow Scot Graeme Dott 6-2.
The evening session saw Ryan Day knock in a century in the final frame decider to clinch a 6-5 victory over Li Hang. Day's total clearance of 138 sealed his passage into the last eight of the competition.
The other late match saw Joe Perry beat Mark Allen 6-4 to deny the Antrim man a first UK Championship quarter-final since 2013.
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