Neil Robertson and John Higgins safely negotiated their passages into the last 16 of the Wuxi Classic in China, yesterday.

World number one Robertson reeled off the last three frames to ease out Martin Gould 5-2, while Higgins was a 5-1 winner over Dechawat Poomjaeng, who proved a crowd favourite at the World Championship in Sheffield in April.

Runs of 86, 88 and 77 gave China Open champion Robertson the spoils before the Australian sent a warning to his rivals.

“After the interval I had a positive frame of mind and I didn’t miss a ball in the last three frames,” he said.

“I feel as if I’m steadily improving as the tournament goes on.”

Higgins lost the first frame against Poomjaeng, but the Scot quickly recovered and breaks of 138, 70, 55 and 75 saw him saunter through to the next round.

Meanwhile, former two-time world champion Mark Williams yesterday edged out plucky Jack Lisowski in a final-frame thriller.

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