China will have two players in the last eight of the UK Championship, snooker's second most important tournament, after Liang Wenbo and Ding Junhui both won on Tuesday.

But Australia's Neil Robertson lost to John Higgins 9-8 as the world champion made amends for a 6-5 Grand Prix semi-final defeat by the Melbourne potter, who went on to take that title.

Ding, the 2005 UK winner, ended current title-holder Shaun Murphy's hopes of a successful defence with a 9-3 win while Liang maintained his fine start this event with a 9-2 victory over Mark King.

Mark Selby defeated snooker great Stephen Hendry 9-5 with Ali Carter beating fellow Englishman Stephen Lee by the same scoreline.

Four-times UK champion Ronnie O'Sullivan served notice of his title credentials with a 9-3 defeat of the experienced Peter Ebdon.

Scotland's Stephen Maguire, the 2004 UK champion and world number two, also won through to the last eight by beating Stuart Bingham 9-3 while surprise package Peter Lines edged past Wales's two-time world champion Mark Williams 9-8.

Ding now plays Carter in the quarter-finals where Lines faces Maguire and O'Sullivan takes on Selby to leave Liang with the difficult task of trying to defeat Higgins.

Liang had started this year's edition of a tournament surpassed in importance on the snooker calendar only by the world championship, with an overwhelming 9-3 first round win over Wales's Ryan Day.

Against King, he made five breaks over 50 and saved his best for the final frame of the match with a contribution of 72.

Even so Liang, who reached the final of this year's Shanghai Masters, was far from happy with his own performance and said he would have to improve in the quarter-finals.

"I didn't play well but I'm happy with the result," Liang told worldsnooker.com before knowing he'd be playing Higgins.

"My next match will be harder."

Meanwhile, a relieved Higgins was happy to have come out on top in his latest close encounter with Robertson.