Williams exits Welsh Open, Higgins & Robertson through

Home favourite and two-time champion Mark Williams is out of the Welsh Open after losing to Barry Hawkins.

Williams, who had sailed into the last 16 with an impressive 4-1 win over Martin O'Donnell, took a 2-1 lead, producing his highest break of the tournament (115) in the second frame.

A key moment came in the fifth in which Williams would have gone 3-2 up, only for the white to go in off the middle pocket.

England's Hawkins, the 2018 runner-up, took the opportunity to clear the table before winning the sixth frame with a break of 84 to seal victory.

Jak Jones and Jackson Page followed Williams out of the Llandudno tournament on Thursday, which means there is no more Welsh involvement this year.

"I thought it was a good match, we both played really well," Williams told BBC Sport Wales.

"I made some great breaks and just a little bit of luck in the last couple of frames decided the way it went.

"It's fine margins at this high level and I was just a little bit unlucky today."

Hawkins will meet another two-time champion, Neil Robertson, in the last eight after the Australian edged Welshman Jones 4-3.

Jones had made a flying start with a 126 break, before Robertson responded in kind with a 122 break.

With the match later tied at 3-3, Robertson came out on top of the deciding seventh frame to claim victory.

Jones' exit left Page as the only Welsh hope, but he was beaten by Jack Lisowski who amassed breaks of 67, 84, 99 and 54 in a convincing 4-2 victory.

Lisowski will be hoping his tournament form continues when he takes on fellow Englishman and 2017 champion Stuart Bingham, who beat Chinese world champion Zhao Xintong 4-2.

John Higgins remains on course for a sixth Welsh Open title after defeating Zhang Anda 4-2.

The Scot recovered from dropping the opening frame by amassing 95, 78 and 60 breaks.

China's Anda responded with a century, before Higgins sealed the match with a superb 144 break, narrowly missing the maximum 147.

Higgins will face the winner of China's Zhou Yuelong and England's Sam Craigie for a place in the semi-finals.

Meanwhile there will be an all-Chinese quarter-final between Jiang Jun and Wu Yize, who both saw off English opposition.

Jun claimed an impressive 4-1 victory over Robbie Williams, while Yize made three breaks of 70 plus and a century to ease past David Grace 4-0.

Morning and afternoon session

Mark Williams 2-4 Barry Hawkins

Jun Jiang 4-1 Robbie Williams

Jak Jones 3-4 Neil Robertson

Wu Yize 4-0 David Grace

Evening session

Jackson Page 2-4 Jack Lisowski

Zhang Anda 2-4 John Higgins

Stuart Bingham 4-2 Zhao Xintong

Zhou Yuelong v Sam Craigie

Monday, 23 February-Sunday, 1 March

Venue Cymru, Llandudno