Defending champion Mark Selby into fourth round at Scottish Open

Defending champion Mark Selby advanced to the last 16 at the Scottish Open with a 4-2 victory over Xiao Guodong in Llandudno.

The world number one was 3-0 ahead before Xiao made the most of multiple Selby errors to claim the next two frames.

However, Selby regained his composure to seal the sixth and set up a meeting with Anthony McGill, who bested Jimmy Robertson 4-3.

Ronnie O’Sullivan booked his last-16 place with a thrilling 4-3 victory over Liang Wenbo.

Mark Selby has beaten Xiao Guodong 4-2 to reach the last 16 of the @BetVictor Scottish Open!

The Jester – hunting for a third consecutive title – faces Anthony McGill next #ScottishOpen pic.twitter.com/48nUci9ATh

— World Snooker Tour (@WeAreWST) December 9, 2021

After falling 2-1 behind, O’Sullivan fought back with breaks of 95 and 131 to take a 3-2 lead, before Liang produced a 128 break to draw things level again.

Liang then had the first chance in the seventh frame but was unable to sustain things and O’Sullivan subsequently claimed victory with a break of 90.

That was after O’Sullivan’s comments from the previous day telling young children not to take up snooker were labelled a “disgrace” by John Higgins, who won his second-round match against Noppon Saengkham 4-1.

Others securing last-16 spots were Jamie Jones – who will face O’Sullivan in the next round – Stephen Maguire, Fergal O’Brien, Ben Woollaston and Luca Brecel.

As well as Higgins’s victory, the second-round action earlier on Wednesday included Judd Trump beating Craig Steadman 4-0, Shaun Murphy exiting with a 4-2 loss to China’s Li Hang, and Yan Bingtao being beaten 4-1 by Hammad Miah.