Higgins edges out Dott

John Higgins continued to impress on his return from suspension with a final-frame victory over fellow Scot Graeme Dott in the second round of the 12Bet.com UK Championship.

Higgins, who served a six-month ban for bringing the game into disrepute after failing to report a match-fixing approach, sealed a 9-8 success with a break of 56 in the decider.

He advanced to a quarter-final meeting in Telford with another of his countrymen, Stephen Maguire.

"It's good to be back and I'm motivated full-stop for the second chapter," said Higgins.

"I just came here to try to win games and tough games are what you want because you know you'll have to play well to win them.

Tough

"It was very tough and Graeme doesn't get the credit he deserves for his game. It's such a tough match to win 9-8 and Graeme will be kicking himself because there were a couple of frames I stole from him."

Maguire booked his spot with a 9-7 triumph against Leicester's Mark Selby, closing out the victory in style with a break of 135.

World champion Neil Robertson held off a mini-fightback by Andrew Higginson to also move into the last eight with a 9-5 win.

Higginson hit back from 7-1 down overnight to 7-4 before Robertson recovered his composure.

Shaun Murphy awaits the Australian left-hander in the quarter-final after the 2005 world champion scraped to a 9-8 triumph over Welshman Ryan Day.

Northern Ireland's Mark Allen was another to survive a revival from his opponent, wasting a 6-2 lead over defending champion Ding Junhui before finally prevailing 9-8.

Allen will play Stuart Bingham next after the Englishman, who beat Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round, demolished Hong Kong's Marco Fu 9-2.

Hendry collapse

Mark Williams came from 5-3 down to defeat Stephen Hendry 9-6 in their second-round clash.

The Welshman had put in a below-par display during the first session of the match but roared back on Tuesday evening, dropping just one frame to leave seven-time world champion Hendry shellshocked.

Williams' reward is a quarter-final meeting with England's Mark Joyce, who came through 9-7 against compatriot Judd Trump.