John Higgins beats Mark Allen to reach quarter-finals

Updated 01/12/2016 at 22:46 GMT

John Higgins finished in style with a century break to beat Mark Allen 6-3 at the UK Championship and reach the last eight.

John Higgins

Image credit: Reuters

The 41-year-old Scot looked close to his best as the fourth round tie progressed, and in this form will fancy his chances of claiming a fourth UK title.

However, it's Mark Selby next up for Higgins, which will be a tougher test than Allen was able to provide in Thursday's meeting.

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Jamie Jones joined Higgins in the quarter-finals in the other match of the afternoon session, overcoming David Gilbert 6-2.

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Luca Brecel took advantage of a rattled Stephen Maguire in the evening session to progress with a 6-3 win.

Aware that his Masters place was hanging in the balance, Maguire rattled off consecutive century breaks to pin back Brecel's early two-frame lead. But the Scot got inside his own head and was unable to deny Brecel time at the table as the Belgian ran out a comfortable winner.